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Sam Harris on Lying

The Neuroscientist and atheism advocate Sam Harris has written a short blog post about a journalist named Jonah Lehrer who destroyed his career through false quotes and lies about them [1]. The main point of the article seems to be to promote his new eBook about Lying. The book is available for free until the end of the week (not sure if that is Friday, Saturday, or Sunday and in what time zone – get it quick if you want it).

The book is very short, 58 pages with a single column of large font text. If written a densely as a typical research paper it would probably be about 12 pages. But it has some good points to make. He makes a good moral case against most forms of lying, even answering questions such as “do I look fat“.

It seems that anyone who was to follow his advice would be unusually honest even by Aspie standards.

1 comment to Sam Harris on Lying

  • BBoppie

    Thanks for the link to the book, I didn’t know how far the whole Dylan thing had gone but I knew the person
    that did it was going down. Lying seems to be a form of the truth in some peoples minds rather than owning up to the reality and being responsible for their own actions; of course society encourages such behavior by not rewarding for those who are responsible by trying to make those who do, pay for everything!