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> If everybody lied all the time, we wouldn't have a functioning society.

This is true. But I don’t think anyone makes the point that someone should lie all the time. Especially not that everyone should lie all the time.

I think that there’s an ethical argument for lieing for some greater purpose (eg, a spy working for the Underground Railroad).

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That phrasing has to do with how Kant thinks you come to discover moral truths: it’s an appeal to Kant’s idea of the categorical imperative which, for him, is the basis of all morals. So, essentially, the claim here is “since you cannot lie all the time and have a functioning society then, by my prior arguments about what morality is, you can never lie”

That interpretation falls on its own absurdity. "Since you cannot eat all the time without dying of obesity, you must never eat at all". The categorical imperative only generalizes across people. "Can you have a functioning society where people tell a white lie now and then?" And the answer is clearly yes. Is it superior to one where everyone is perfectly honest? Less obvious.

Yes, precisely. Sorry I wasn't clear about that.

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