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Is It Morally Right for a Politician to Lie?

In: Business and Management

Submitted By hks2679
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From two of the following perspectives evaluate the claim that it is morally right for a politician to lie to the public in order to get a policy enacted.

a) Aristotle
b) Kant
c) Mill
d) Rand

Abraham Lincoln once said that “If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem” (wisdomquotes.com). Everyone has the understanding that once someone lies, they can’t be easily trusted again and it is harder to restore trust then probably anything else. Lying has made its way into society and especially in politics it can be easily found. Politicians often lie in order to achieve what they think is right for society. In their minds it might be right, but is it morally right to do so? When evaluating this claim by using Aristotle’s virtue and common-good approach, and Kant’s universal rule and right’s approach, we determine that it not morally right to lie in order to get a policy enacted.
Aristotle says that everyone is striving for happiness. In order to be happy we have to be good, and to be good is to develop our highest potential by using virtues such as honesty. Since virtues develop our highest potential and lying is not a virtue, it is wrong to lie. Another approach that proves that lying is wrong is the common-good approach which says that the individual’s own good is linked to the whole community. Since lying hurts the community, it automatically hurts the individual.
Kant would prove lying to be wrong with his universal rule approach (Categorical Imperative) which states “act only on that maxim which you can at the same time will it should become a universal law” (page 143). When looking at this approach we can determine that one should act in a way they want to be treated and no one wants to be lied to. Therefore not lying has to apply to everyone as a duty. If the whole world lied, the society

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