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Comment by giantsloth | Hacker News Reader

This is a quaint sentiment, but marketing, sales, PR is all about misleading and creating unnecessary want. This is a major tenant of running a business and living under capitalism. There is also a moral argument for doing what you need to do in order to survive the difficulties of the market in order to survive it and change it into something more akin to your honest attitude about it.

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I think you'll find that a lot of stem people tend to lean Kantian in their ethics. This implies that misleading people for any reason -- even "for their own good" -- is frowned upon.

He did say marketing, sales and PR but your point still stands.

I was referring to marketing, sales, and PR as activities moreso than the people who work in those fields. I can't speak for all stem people, of course, but I, personally, have a strong aversion to those activities.

I am not sure the Categorical Imperative rules out misleading people for their own good. If a win win result is highly likely the categorical imperative says it’s OK if you do it because if the whole world did it, things would become better!

No, it's still using people as a means to an end. It's even wrong to lie to the murderer at the door. Kant himself addressed this in an essay titled: On The Supposed Right To Lie From Altruistic Motives[1].

[1] https://www.unc.edu/courses/2009spring/plcy/240/001/Kant.pdf

Yes I am aware, however the categorical imperative by itself does not seem to rule out such lying.

“Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” — Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals

Being Kantian doesn't mean being correct. It's not that hard to disagree with Kant's extreme hypothetical.

But it's even better in the long run if inefficient companies consistently lose to the better ones, since it will lead to better allocation of capital.

"There is also a moral argument for doing what you need to do in order to survive the difficulties of the market in order to survive it and change it into something more akin to your honest attitude about it."

There's really not, but it might make you feel better to think there is.

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