LYING
142Luther’s translation of the Bible into
the vernacular not only made Scripture
accessible to the laity but also helped
concretize a standardized version of the
modern German language. His contribu-
tions to hymnody led to the further devel-
opment of church singing and are still
found in hymnals today. Luther wrote
with aggressive passion against those who
disagreed with his theology—Catholics,
Jews, and even other reformers—in a way
that Lutherans today consider regrettable.
Yet, his theology is still today regarded by
many Protestants as being at the heart of
Christian truth. His works include On the
Liberty of a Christian Man (1520), An
Address to the Nobility of the German
Nation (1520), and On the Babylonian
Captivity of the Church of God (1520).
LYING. The Western tradition of thought
about lying has attended principally to
two issues. First, what is it to lie? Second,
when, if ever, is lying permissible (or
required)? As to the definitional question,
three elements have been of importance.
The first is duplicity: intentionally claim-
ing what you take not to be the case. The
second is an utterance intended to deceive
or mislead its hearer. And the third is
uttering something which is in fact false.
Since each of these can be present in an
utterance absent the other two (and any
two absent the third), these elements may
be combined in various ways in defining
the lie. The most common definitions
have been those that combine the first
and second elements, though with widely
differing degrees of emphasis.
As to the second issue, the lie’s per-
missibility: positions here have ranged
from an exceptionless ban on the lie,
through a relaxed acceptance of its fre-
quent unavoidability, to a defense of its
propriety or even its obligatoriness in
certain circumstances. The standard
Christian position from late antiquity to
the Reformation was that duplicitous
utterance is never defensible. This was a
position argued trenchantly and influen-
tially by Augustine in the fourth century.
The difficulty of that position led to a
luxuriant casuistry which attempted to
preserve the ban on duplicity while yet
making it possible to speak deceptively.
Immanuel Kant, at the end of the eigh-
teenth century, revived a rigorous ban
on the duplicitous lie, though for reasons
very different from Augustine’s. His
position, however, found as little support
among Kantians as Augustine’s had
among Augustinians, and much current
discussion of lying is either strictly his-
torical or attentive to the peculiar para-
doxes produced by the possibility of lying
to oneself.LYOTARD, JEAN-FRANCOIS (1924–
1998). Lyotard is perhaps best known for
his epoch-making, “postmodern” argu-
ment against philosophers like Kant,
Hegel and Marx whose grand “meta-
narratives,” or modern schemas, promise
truth and justice at the end of inquiry.