(in regards to Utilitarianism)
There are three matters to keep in mind when discussing honesty & Utilitarianism:
1: The potential discovery of a lie leads to dissatisfaction -
2: Many of us feel "inherently" bad when we choose to lie -
3: The result of lying can sometimes end in an overall more satisfying outcome.
I believe I may have found a way to bridge the last two matters into a more progressive platform. That is, if we can agree that the goal of honesty is to give the other person the most accurate conception of reality.
There are many implications that one statement can have on the perception of other issues, and if honesty will result in an overall more distorted view of other circumstances, then you have essentially caused the other person to believe untrue things (essentially lying). Basically, I'm equating degree of "honesty" with the other person's degree of accuracy when considering all things. I'll use a classic example -
"Does this make me look fat?"
Let's assume that the "liar" in this instance does correlate the idea of what it means to be fat with a positive or "yes" answer in this situation. I believe that saying "no" could still be considered the most honest answer, depending on the analysis of the asker's reaction. It's important to note that when they are asking "am I fat?" they are essentially asking "am I fat, and if so, are all of my associated assumptions and necessary reactions knowing you think I'm fat true?". Essentially, there are implications like this for every question asked. Let's assume that the analysis of the asker's reaction goes something like this -
answer - "yes"
reaction -
"they are less attracted to me"
"I am ugly"
"I am fat"
"they have a greater chance of leaving me due to my body"
"they are not satisfied"
Now, if the majority of the presumed reactions are farther from the truth than if the answer was "no," then saying yes resulted in a more accurate conception of overall circumstances, and in this case, "no" is the most honest answer. It would also be very important to use a high level of discretion, because it is not easy to accurately interpret someone's innermost thoughts, and if they found out that you lied, there is a greater chance of mistrust - as impulse likely tells all of us that our conception of reality is the true one.
