[lit-ideas] "A last distasteful resort" (Was: Truth-Telling)
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 09:08:38 EDT
In a message dated 10/13/2004 5:21:04 AM Eastern Standard Time,
JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx writes:
Of course the reason she spoke thus was that she was addressing a man.
Men
deal much better with denial than truth. Sweeping generalization coming
from
experience.
From: _bruce@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"'I suppose I'll have to tell you all about it,' she said. 'I mean,
I'd better tell the truth.' She spoke as if this was always a last
distasteful resort instead of a moral obligation."
["She" is the character Helen Missal in Ruth Rendell's _From Doon With
Death_]
-----
Well, there's this Anglo saying,
"Honesty is the best strategy, say I"
-- which categorises truth-telling as a utility-maximising maxim, as Kant
would have it.
Interestingly, I am told that in Italy, -- the urban myth goes -- to
acknowledge that you don't know some direction is judged worse than giving a
_wrong_
direction:
Tourist: Where is the Leaning Tower?
Italian: Straight away, three blocks, then four blocks to the right
and one to the left.
I suppose this may have to do with some feeling of 'distaste' among the
Italian people? Or maybe it's just a legend
Cheers,
JL
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