Comment by zsoltkacsandi

4 days ago

> and the descriotions of the same thing are different for different persons

When my son says, "I wasn't there" when the glass broke, it's not just a matter of differing descriptions, it's a clear denial of a fact. There are facts, and when someone deliberately twists or denies them, that's not just a different perspective. That's a lie.

You are right, for somethings, the truth is clear, but for other things, it is difficult to find the last truth, only reach its truth over time

  • > it is difficult to find the last truth, only reach its truth over time

    The fact that is difficult to find out the truth, does not mean that something was or wasn't a lie. Paradoxically this is an attribute of a "good" lie: it is difficult to find out that it wasn't the truth.

I think this is a good example of a lie because you and your son both have a shared understanding of the world and he is deliberately saying something he does not believe to be true (that does not match his own internal recall of events).

There is a physical component to this lie but it seems to me that the social part dominates.

  • Yes, They have the same understanding of the meanings of the words "I", "was", "not" and "there", and the sentence.

    • That’s not the point. You know your son knows what happened - knowledge of his mental state. Not that you have a physical proof about the chain of causality.