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  3. When is it permissible to tell a lie? Never, according to Augustine and Kant. Machiavelli approved lying for princes, Nietzsche

When is it permissible to tell a lie? Never, according to Augustine and Kant. Machiavelli approved lying for princes, Nietzsche

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问题    When is it permissible to tell a lie? Never, according to Augustine and Kant. Machiavelli approved lying for princes, Nietzsche for the exceptional hero—the Superman. Most other philosophers, and ordinary folk, are less certain, allowing some lies, but not others. After some 2,500 years of moral speculation, says Philosopher Sissela Bok, mankind is still trying to work out ground rules for acceptable lying.
   1. Mental reservation as a type of lying.
   In her new book, Lying, Bok traces the history of convoluted arguments on the subject. For instance, casuists invented the "mental reservation."
   2. Casual lying frequently used in America.
   Most norms on lying, Bok writes, grow out of elaborate moral systems of thought that "are often elegant in operation, noble in design. But when we have to make difficult concrete moral choices, they give us little help." In the absence of clear social guidelines, casual lying has become entrenched in America.
   3. Lying accepted in academic circle.
   Bok also argues that lying is now an accepted part of many professions, including law and the behavioral sciences.
   4. Lying in journalism.
   Bok sees problems in journalism too. Those lies reported on TV or newspapers, she maintains, were not clearly necessary and may encourage other reporters to use such tactics routinely. Reporters Bernstein and Woodward, however, seemed untroubled by "the whole fabric of deception".
   5. Should political lies be approved?
   By this standard, she argues, political lies are rarely justifiable. "If government duplicity is to be allowed in exceptional cases," Bok concludes, "the criteria for these exceptions should themselves be openly debated and publicly chosen. Otherwise government leaders will have free rein to manipulate and distort the facts." Then what kinds of lies should be permitted? Bok’s answer, only those approved in advance by the general public.
   Bok feels that doctors should stop virtually all lying to patients, universities should root out fraudulent and deceptive research, and government officials should be expected to stick to the truth. Her point: the public is now so cynical about being lied to that only extraordinary efforts to avoid lying will restore a feeling of trust. Or, as Mark Twain once observed, "Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest."
   [A] For instance, they used to uncover the Watergate scandal.
   [B] Social Psychologist Jerald Jellison estimates that the average American outstrips Pinocchio by telling 200 lies a day, including white lies and false excuses ("Sorry I’m late. I was tied up at the office").
   [C] The use of unmarked police cars is one example of socially approved deception.
   [D] For instance, Grotius said that speaking falsely to an intruder is not a lie. This, Bok suggests, would be something like knocking a man to the ground, then explaining that you did not hit him because he had no right to be there.
   [E] In a typical experiment in social psychology, for example, a subject is misled about the aims of the study to see how he reacts under pressure.
   [F] The phrase can be best interpreted by this example: "Mr. Smith is not in today"—a lie that is magically transformed into a truth by adding the unspoken thought "to you."
   
选项
答案B
解析 小标题点明了本段主旨：美国人经常撒谎。各选项中，只有B提及美国人说谎的相关信息，其中的average American．．．telling 200 lies a day表明美国人说谎频繁，解释了文中说的“随口扯谎的行为已深深扎根于美国人的日常生活当中”(castral lying．．．entrenched．．．)。故选B。
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