Is it Ever Ok to Lie?

<p>The answer to this question is “no, never” or “yes, and a lot more often than you might think,” depending on <em>exactly</em> what we mean by a “lie.”&nbsp; The problem is complicated by the multiple ways people use that term.&nbsp; For example, you’ll often hear someone confess to you, “I lied,” when what the person really means is nothing more than, “I made an error.”&nbsp; But being mistaken is not the same thing as lying, since lying requires a deliberate intention to tell a falsehood, a condition that is absent when we make mistakes.&nbsp; Thus, mistakes are not lies, and we would do well not to confuse them.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; Because we use certain terms to convey automatic moral condemnation, and lying is one of these terms.</p>