Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-6bb9c88b65-bcq64 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-24T02:54:38.542Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter I - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2025

Jens Timmermann
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Scotland
Get access

Summary

Truthfulness is, so to speak, Kant’s go-to duty. He invokes it in a wide range of philosophical settings, such as his discussion of free will in the Critique of Pure Reason, in his argument for a pure moral theory in the Groundwork, in the detailed moral philosophy of the Metaphysics of Morals and in his late lectures on education. Even though its scope and its theoretical foundation vary, the duty not to lie remains Kant’s prime example of a strict and unequivocal obligation. By way of introduction, this chapter first provides a survey of some important passages in which Kant invokes or argues for the duty of truthfulness before turning to the textbook example that is the bone of contention between him and Benjamin Constant and presenting some reactions provoked by the main thesis of Kant’s essay “On a Supposed Right to Lie”: that there is an unconditional, absolute duty to be truthful even in emergencies.

Information

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge-org.demo.remotlog.com is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Introduction
  • Jens Timmermann, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Book: Kant and the Supposed Right to Lie
  • Online publication: 18 July 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108992435.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
  • Jens Timmermann, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Book: Kant and the Supposed Right to Lie
  • Online publication: 18 July 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108992435.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Jens Timmermann, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Book: Kant and the Supposed Right to Lie
  • Online publication: 18 July 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108992435.002
Available formats
×