The Small Lie

Dear Sebastian,

Ah, what a plight it is, to be stuck between Scylla and Charybdis. Ha, sorry just a little Ancient Greek comedy for you. While it seems you have taken a note from Hammurabi, my opinions on the matter seem to sway in a slightly different direction. From what I read, I understand you to be showing up to work late. But your boss holds you later than agreed upon constantly. However, it isn't the fact of you arriving late that bothers you , or so you have written. Upon arriving late you tell small stories, of no truth to give reason to your lateness. It is having had said multiple false hoods which seems to have shaken you to ask me of the morality of your actions.

If your question would not have included the fabrication of stories, I would have been almost totally inclined to agree with your application of Hammurabis code. For I believe what you were attempting was a form of justice. You perceived that a wrong had been done unto you and in response you seek retribution. This may not be the exact case, as it seems your lateness was not premeditated, but just happenstance. Seeking justice would normally require one to do the "seeking". But this does not seem to be the source of your woes, so let me address the ethics of lying.

Lying is quite a nasty thing. Lying has no place in the world unless under the most extreme of conditions. It is the antithesis of honesty. In such extreme cases where telling the truth would cause harm to someone who unjustly deserves it , lying would be permitted. I do not believe your circumstance to be one of life or death, or even next to such an extreme. Everything you do is aimed at your goal of happiness. Saying lies seems to have given an immediate sense of happiness, but in retrospect is leading to a sense of guilt. So to answer your question of , "what do you think". I think lying is almost never a good action. For "liars when they speak the truth are not believed"~me. So go on. Strive to be honest, in which I am sure you will inch closer to happiness.

~Aristotle

Philosophical Practitioner

Phone#: I-DCC-askaris