Jean-Paul Sarte wrote, in
Being and Nothingness, regarding lying, "Lying is a negative attitude, anyone will agree." But, will they today?
Sarte posited that the essence of the lie implies that the liar is actually in complete possession of the truth. One cannot lie unless one first knows the truth. Sarte said the essence of the lie is that the truth is hidden intentionally. Sarte wrote, "A man does not lie about what he is ignorant of; he does not lie when he spreads an error of which he himself is the dupe; he does not lie when he is mistaken." In fact, none of these are lies according to Sarte (Of course, as a Christian I have a different standard than Sarte.).
Sarte wrote regarding the liar, "The ideal case of the liar would be a cynical consciousness, affirming truth within himself, denying it with his words, and denying the denial to himself." Sarte is clear; the liar intends to deceive and does not hide this intention from himself even though he hides it from all others. The lie, according to Sarte, does not involve the inner structure of present consciousness; it does not require special ontological foundations. Sarte stated that the lie is "a behavior of transcendence."
This is where the crux of this issue lies for me (no pun intended). When the lie becomes a behavior of self transcendence it becomes something more. Self transcendence defined is the capacity to reach out beyond oneself and discover or make meaning of experience through perspectives and behavior. Is this what we have become? Do we now reach beyond ourselves through the lie? Is the lie how we make meaning and behave?
Sarte writes of the lie inside his theories on self negation as experienced through "bad faith." While it is impossible to communicate his ideas concerning self negation in this space, I believe this is part of the idea Sarte was communicating regarding the lie. It falls inside his ideas concerning consciousness. Sarte wrote, "Consciousness is a being, the nature of which is to be conscious of the nothingness of its being." This is where the power for man to deny himself rests... to say no to himself. However, the lie redirects the consciousness inward to self instead outward and the denial moves away from self and outward to external elements. The lie then becomes part of self transcendence... part of how we experience the world... part of who we are in the world.
I am, by no means, perfect, but I do try to tell the truth, and at times, I tell the truth to a fault. Over the course of my life, I have been astounded by the lie. I have struggled to understand how it could be used without a thought. I have found it to be embraced as if it were truth, and in my studies, I have always keep the topic at hand in case I run into something some day that helps me understand the lie a little better. After reading a little Sarte, I think I have more of an understanding of the lie than I did before I read Sarte. Is my understanding complete? Not even close.
