20 Dec 2005

Of Law and Lying

Posted by Oblivion in General | 9:58pm


Excerpts from a discussion between Philosophy students on Ethics and Lying:

"Well, you see the human being, in the human mind is a funny thing. We don't know--collectively as human beings--anything about the absolute truth. You have two people that witness a murder. One says the gasoline attendant went in [for his gun] and the fella shot in self-defense (even though he was committing a crime). The other will say the felon just opened fire and the man had his hands in the air. Or in a police shooting. The crowd says the man was unarmed and the police planted a gun. He had his hand raised--and the police shot him. On the hand the police say, 'The man was pointing a gun at us and we shot him.' Yet in the context of absolute truth, both might be in their minds telling the truth. Because you have elements that override both the police and the witnesses. Those are surprise and panic. And both can distort the truth.

"Einstein said when two people observe the same event, because they're two people, they see things differently, it's not the same experiment."

Are such insights ever taught at any Law school? I wonder.



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