Olivia King
I did my midterm
report on Game of Thrones and Philosophy, so I decided to just continue on that
same path and get a little more in depth on just how philosophical Game of
Thrones is. I used the book titled “Game of Thrones and Philosophy- Logic Cuts
Deeper than Swords” by Henry Jacoby. For the first installment, we’ll be
talking about lying. If you’ve ever watched Game of Thrones, you’ll quickly
realize that the characters are constantly intertwined in webs of lies and
deception. However, a lot of questions can come out of these lies. Is one lie
worse than another? Is it ever okay to lie? Does the indecency of a lie
increase or decrease depending on who it’s told to? Throughout the story, there
are instances of outright lying and instances of withholding the truth or only
telling a certain part of it. For example, at one point in the story Prince
Joffrey lies to his father’s face and tells him that Arya Stark and the butcher
boy beat him with clubs for no reason. This is not true, he instigated the
whole ordeal and caused the butcher boy to lose his life and the death of Sansa’s
wolf. There are also instances of indirect deception, withholding the truth, or
only telling one part of the truth. The book says that at one point Robb Stark
tricks the Lannisters by splitting the forces of the North behind their back,
and because of this Jamie Lannister the Kingslayer is captured by the Northern
army. Is this mode of deception better because it’s not outright lying? Henry
Jacoby doesn’t think that this is always true. Neither do Immanuel Kant or
Roderick Chisholm, who say that lying to someone’s face is worse than deceiving
them in some other way. All of this talk of lying and deception brings forth an
important question: is it ever okay to lie or deceive someone? I was raised on
the principle that even withholding information was considered lying, but I’ve
come to have some of my own beliefs on this subject. In my opinion, I think
there are certain situations that can warrant lying or deceiving someone for
just a little bit. For instance, say you’re withholding information that would
be harmful to someone, or you’re keeping someone safe. Then, in my opinion it is okay to bend the
truth a little. However, telling someone you’re going one place and then going
to a completely different one hit home a little more. You’re going out of your
way to make up a whole new story and someone believe something else. With
deception, it could be as easy as withholding a little bit of information. Lies
have more thought put into them, they’re more personal. That’s just a little
but about lying and deception in “Game of Thrones.” These are issues that were
relevant back then and will probably never be agreed on. I don’t think that we
should make a habit out of lying, but there are instances of lying or deceit
where you have to lie to protect yourself or someone else.
I would like to agree with you on the statement that lying is personal and in most cases unnecessary. Lying to protect someone from harm is something that I think most can agree with. I also think it is weird how so many people claim trust is important to them, but they continuously to others. They lie to others and expect others to be truthful. Is it unreasonable to expect others to be truthful when you are not truthful?
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge fan of the tv show. When i first watched it I noticed that there was so much lies and deception. People were dying as a result of people lying. In the Game of Thrones it got to the point where no one can trust anybody. I do agree with holding information or bending the truth is awful. It can hurt people or even worse get them killed.
ReplyDeleteTruth ought always to be our aspiration, but so ought kindness, compassion, fairness... all of which can only be ascertained by evaluating what will be made of our truth by those who hear it. If our interlocutor intends to harm innocent persons with the truth, he/she deserves our deceit.
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