If you make a promise, why must you keep it, according to Kant?…

If you make a promise, why must you keep it, according to Kant?…

If you make a promise, why must you keep it, according to Kant?

Most of us know the story of Pinocchio and the fact that the more he lies, the more his nose grows to ever longer and to more disastrous lengths. So at least we get the idea in the Pinocchio story, lying is bad. On the other hand, we often hear people say that it’s OK to tell a “little white lie” or that “we all lie”. But the fact is, it is not true that we all lie. In some cultures lying is taboo, and if one is caught at it, the liar may well lose his life. It is also not true that telling a white lie is harmless. Consider the young girl who spends hours getting ready for her first date and asks her mother, do I look fat in this dress?  Her mother may think that yes, she really does and debates whether to tell her so. Should she tell her daughter the truth? Most of us would say she should not. What happens, however, if at the party someone gossips about her dress and she overhears the critical remark. She would be embarrassed certainly, but what about her relationship with her mother. Would she trust her mother’s opinion about something like this in the future. Of course not. That doesn’t mean her mother should say she looks fat! Her mother could be more tactful than that. She might say, “You know, I like the blue dress you wore last week much better. You look stunning in that.”

In his works on moral philosophy, Kant shows the really serious consequences of lying and why we should not do so.

From the reading this week, explain why the categorical imperative shows we should never lie. In other words, explain the categorical imperative and how it works in the situation of lying.