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Augustine was a supporter of that view. He thought that lies
had an adverse affect on the quality of life and society.
The polar position of course, as we say, was Immanuel Kant,
when he says that it destroys a man’s self-esteem, it throws
away his dignity as a man.

Now Sissella starts out by giving a negative score to
lies. Quotes Aristotle as a good reference, as always. To
him a lie is, as a starting point, “mean and culpable”. Her
examples are lying to old people, medical situations, white
lies, fake pills, inflated recommendations (in fitness reports),
lawyers who want a “truer picture”, and honor codes who would
start out simple and get so tangled with legalistic provisos
that we all wish we were back to the Greeks working with
a disposition of character instead of this interminable mess
of rules and conduct. Rules of conduct are the way of modern
philosophy – since Descartes in about 1600.

Who was Kant? He was a man who lived in the same age
as George Washington. George was born in 1732 and died in
1799. Immanuel Kant was born 8 years before Washington was
born and died 5 years after. He was born in Konigsberg,
East Prussia of poor parents. His father was a saddler who
had emigrated from Scotland. His parents were religious.
They were a Lutheran sect who had committed themselves more
to faith than the mother church. They wanted more heart in
the religion and they were somewhat like typical plains
people, protestant, somewhat fundamentalists. Their sect

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