What is Wrong with Lying without the Intent to Deceive?
WIPS with Allan Hazlett, Washington University in St. Louis
Work in Progress Series for faculty and graduate students of the department.
Abstract: Several contemporary philosophers argue that lying does not require the intent to deceive. If this is right, it is unclear that there is something wrong with lying as such. In this paper, I give an account of what is wrong with lying that extends to cases of lying without the intent to deceive. Such cases turn out to be of two kinds. First, in one kind of case, the liar risks non-intentionally deceiving their interlocutor. Second, in another kind of case, the liar makes fun of their interlocutor's vulnerability to deception, by pretending to attempt to deceive them.