Ethical is undefined here, but if it was a defined standard, you’d just pick the available action that scores well on that standard, even if it doesn’t satisfy the constraint “behave as if you know all information you in fact know” (which I think the hiding Jews from a Nazi is the classic example)
If the point of solving the puzzle is to better understand the concept “ethics in relation to truth-acting” then I don’t think I’ve added much by the Nazi example or the games & performances ones.
What do you believe the point of the puzzle is? What would a good solution entail or imply?
The point of me positing the puzzle is for you (or anyone who cares to tackle this) to say what your chosen / preferred / ideal ethics answers to this; or, alternatively or additionally, what your moral intuitions say about this (and if your ethics, or your moral intuitions, or both, say nothing to this, then that too is an interesting and important fact). And the point of the puzzle itself is that the answer isn’t necessarily obvious.
“Do what your ethics says you should do” is therefore a non-answer.
If the point of solving the puzzle is to better understand the concept “ethics in relation to truth-acting” then I don’t think I’ve added much by the Nazi example or the games & performances ones.
For me the answer is no, I don’t believe it’s ethically mandatory to share all information I know to everyone if they happen to ask the right question. I can’t give a complete formalization of why, but three specific situations are 1) keeping someone else’s information secret & 2) when I predict the other person will assume harmful implications that aren’t true &3) when the other person isn’t in the right mind to hear the true information.
Ex for #3: you would like your husband to change more diapers and help clean up a little more before they leave work every day, but you just thought of it right when he came home from a long work day. It would be better to wait to give a criticism when you’re sure they’re in a good mood.
An example for #2: I had a friend have positive thoughts towards a girl that wasn’t his girlfriend. He was confused about this and TOLD HIS GIRLFRIEND WHEN THEY WERE DATING LONG DISTANCE. The two girls have had an estranged relationship for years since.
If I was my friend, I would understand that positive thoughts towards a pretty girl my age doesn’t imply that I am required to romantically engage them. Telling my girlfriend about these thoughts might be truthful and honest, but it would likely cause her to feel insecure and jealous, even though she has nothing to worry about.
For me the answer is no, I don’t believe it’s ethically mandatory to share all information I know to everyone if they happen to ask the right question.
Note that this is an answer to a considerably narrower question than the one I asked.
That having been said, I think at least some of what you mentioned / described was relevant. In any case, given your answer, the answer to the broader question must necessarily also be “no”.
So, what I wonder now is whether anyone is willing to take, and defend, the opposite view: that it is ethically mandatory at all times to behave as if you know all the information which, in fact, you know. (It is, I know, an odd—or, at least, oddly formulated—ethical principle. And yet it seems to me that it directly connected to the subject of the OP…)
I realized afterwards that only “not sharing others secrets” is an example of “it’s ethical to lie if someone asks a direct question”. The other two were more “don’t go out of your way to tell the whole truth in this situation (but wait for a better situation)”
I do believe my ethics is composed of wanting what’s “best” for others and truthful communication is just an instrumental goal.
If I had to blatantly lie every day, so that all my loved ones could be perfectly healthy and feel great, I would lie every day.
I don’t think anyone would terminally value honesty (in any of it’s forms).
Ethical is undefined here, but if it was a defined standard, you’d just pick the available action that scores well on that standard, even if it doesn’t satisfy the constraint “behave as if you know all information you in fact know” (which I think the hiding Jews from a Nazi is the classic example)
If the point of solving the puzzle is to better understand the concept “ethics in relation to truth-acting” then I don’t think I’ve added much by the Nazi example or the games & performances ones.
What do you believe the point of the puzzle is? What would a good solution entail or imply?
The point of me positing the puzzle is for you (or anyone who cares to tackle this) to say what your chosen / preferred / ideal ethics answers to this; or, alternatively or additionally, what your moral intuitions say about this (and if your ethics, or your moral intuitions, or both, say nothing to this, then that too is an interesting and important fact). And the point of the puzzle itself is that the answer isn’t necessarily obvious.
“Do what your ethics says you should do” is therefore a non-answer.
I agree.
Thanks for the clarification.
For me the answer is no, I don’t believe it’s ethically mandatory to share all information I know to everyone if they happen to ask the right question. I can’t give a complete formalization of why, but three specific situations are 1) keeping someone else’s information secret & 2) when I predict the other person will assume harmful implications that aren’t true &3) when the other person isn’t in the right mind to hear the true information.
Ex for #3: you would like your husband to change more diapers and help clean up a little more before they leave work every day, but you just thought of it right when he came home from a long work day. It would be better to wait to give a criticism when you’re sure they’re in a good mood.
An example for #2: I had a friend have positive thoughts towards a girl that wasn’t his girlfriend. He was confused about this and TOLD HIS GIRLFRIEND WHEN THEY WERE DATING LONG DISTANCE. The two girls have had an estranged relationship for years since.
If I was my friend, I would understand that positive thoughts towards a pretty girl my age doesn’t imply that I am required to romantically engage them. Telling my girlfriend about these thoughts might be truthful and honest, but it would likely cause her to feel insecure and jealous, even though she has nothing to worry about.
Note that this is an answer to a considerably narrower question than the one I asked.
That having been said, I think at least some of what you mentioned / described was relevant. In any case, given your answer, the answer to the broader question must necessarily also be “no”.
So, what I wonder now is whether anyone is willing to take, and defend, the opposite view: that it is ethically mandatory at all times to behave as if you know all the information which, in fact, you know. (It is, I know, an odd—or, at least, oddly formulated—ethical principle. And yet it seems to me that it directly connected to the subject of the OP…)
I realized afterwards that only “not sharing others secrets” is an example of “it’s ethical to lie if someone asks a direct question”. The other two were more “don’t go out of your way to tell the whole truth in this situation (but wait for a better situation)”
I do believe my ethics is composed of wanting what’s “best” for others and truthful communication is just an instrumental goal.
If I had to blatantly lie every day, so that all my loved ones could be perfectly healthy and feel great, I would lie every day.
I don’t think anyone would terminally value honesty (in any of it’s forms).