The Role of Truth in a Government and our Ethical Duties to Governments That Lie
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Authors
Ostberg, Luke
Date of Issue
2025
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Subject Keywords
Other Titles
What To Do in a Polis of Falsities: An examination of ethical duties to governments supported by half-truths and lies
Abstract
We do not usually think about a government’s role in our pursuit of truth until we have been lied to by a government. In such cases, there is usually much hostility towards the government that lies, which can inspire election shifts, constitutional changes, and even mass revolutions. My paper will address the role of a government in our pursuit of truth and ask what our ethical duties are to governments that willfully lie to its citizens. Aristotle’s analysis in his Politics provides a foundation for my research of this question. Aristotle presents a government as a facilitator of virtuous lives for its citizens. Relying on this groundwork, Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism and Soviet era literature show that a government cannot be the proprietor of truth, but that it must create an environment in which the citizens know that truth exists and can freely pursue it. When a government does lie, as historical examples in Czechoslovakia and Poland demonstrate, our duties to a lying government do not diminish nor do they increase. Instead, our duties take on greater gravity, for it must be the people’s responsibility to take up the role of creating an environment to pursue truth and practice virtue when the government has shirked this responsibility. These insights can help us in our current political environment to foster a society which protects the capacity to seek truth and builds the virtue to do so.