| Courses
Click
on the link to view the syllabus and essay topics/study guides.
Spring 2012:
Logic (PHL 105
001: TR 4:30 - 5:45, DP 1457)
Ethics (PHL 106
0G6 - Tandem w/ HUM 122-001, MW 9:30 - 12:15, DP 1457)
World Religions (PHL 205
009: MW 12:30 - 1:45, DP 3619)
Asian Philosophy (PHL 215
001: TR 9:30 - 10:45, DP 2609)
|
Resources
Department
of Philosophy and Humanities
Oakton’s Credit Course
Schedule
|
Daily Philosophical Reflection
12/20/11
Lying & Shame
Nietzsche wrote: “it is a fundamental belief of all aristocrats that the common people are untruthful.” (Beyond Good and Evil) For Nietzsche, only the weak have to resort to lying, whereas the strong have nothing to hide. In Plato’s Gorgias, Callicles asserts that strength is a function of two principal virtues: courage and intelligence. I think this correlates amazingly well with Nietzsche’s view (btw, it’s at this point in the Gorgias that Socrates changes his line of argument, suggesting at least implicitly that he would have to concur as well). The point is, there is agreement among all three figures that lying is despicable. It is characteristic of the lowest-of-the-low, cowards who largely lack the intelligence to even be competent in their deceit.
Despicable behavior that one is caught lying about at times occasions the admonishment: “You should be ashamed of yourself!” So there seems to be a link between lying and shame. But where does this sense of shame come from? If no one else knew (if we were not subjected to “the gaze of the Other”), would we still feel shame? And if so, is this pang of conscience merely a neurotic relic, a characteristic of weaker humans who lack the courage and/or intelligence to shrug it off?
|
