Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- PART I DEMOCRACY AND GLOBALIZATION
- PART II INDIA AND THE WORLD
- PART III SOCIAL NORMS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY
- 21 Social Norms, Law, and Economics
- 22 Methodological Individualism in the Social Sciences
- 23 Left Politics and Modern Economics
- 24 Hung Parliament: A Voting Scheme for Preventing It
- 25 Money, Music, and Harmony
- 26 Rules of Engagement
- 27 The Enigma of Advertising
- 28 The Truth About Lying
- 29 Rationality: New Research in Psychology and Economics
- 30 Higher and Lower Education
- PART IV PERSONS
- PART V ON THE ROAD, AROUND THE WORLD
- Index
28 - The Truth About Lying
from PART III - SOCIAL NORMS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- PART I DEMOCRACY AND GLOBALIZATION
- PART II INDIA AND THE WORLD
- PART III SOCIAL NORMS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY
- 21 Social Norms, Law, and Economics
- 22 Methodological Individualism in the Social Sciences
- 23 Left Politics and Modern Economics
- 24 Hung Parliament: A Voting Scheme for Preventing It
- 25 Money, Music, and Harmony
- 26 Rules of Engagement
- 27 The Enigma of Advertising
- 28 The Truth About Lying
- 29 Rationality: New Research in Psychology and Economics
- 30 Higher and Lower Education
- PART IV PERSONS
- PART V ON THE ROAD, AROUND THE WORLD
- Index
Summary
On being asked by Bertrand Russell if he ever told lies, the famous Cambridge philosopher G.E. Moore answered, ‘Yes.’ Russell believed this was the only time Moore had lied. It is possible to argue that Russell's deduction was, for once, wrong, and that Moore had got the better of him. If Moore had told lies before giving that answer to Russell, then clearly his answer was not a lie. Now suppose that he had never told a lie before, then in answering yes he ensured that his answer was right.
Lying and honesty are intriguing subjects that have engaged philosophers for centuries. Social scientists took very little interest in them. This has suddenly begun to change. It is a much more mundane concern with lying and honesty that has been engaging economists and political scientists in recent times, but it's a concern of some pervasive importance.
Social analysts, notably Francis Fukuyama and Robert Putnam, have argued that societies with a high level of trust—i.e. where people tend to be honest, adhere to promises, and respect contracts—tend to prosper. So, faster growth is not just a consequence of appropriate economic policy, savings rate, human capital, and fiscal deficits, but, somewhat surprisingly, the level of honesty in the citizenry.
This is one area in which the Indian citizenry can do with a little bit of brushing up. The damage usually gets done early, when children are taught that ‘honesty is the best policy’.
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- Information
- The Retreat of Democracy and Other Itinerant Essays on Globalization, Economics, and India , pp. 191 - 193Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2010