Prof. Kristi Sweet (Texas A&M University)

Abstract Kant’s assertion in his essay “On a Supposed Right to Lie from Philanthropy” is almost universally maligned by Kant scholars and those who seek to discredit what has come to be called ‘deontological ethics.’ On the contrary, I argue that Kant held his position because of the relation he asserts between the state and its foundation on a morally self-legislating subject—a central tenant of the German Enlightenment project. Lying, however, is a special kind of renunciation of one’s capacity to be morally self-legislative, and therefore threatens the social contract. In this, the Right to Lie can speak to how it is we ought to show up in the public sphere under the conditions of republicanism. We further see that the political project of Enlightenment requires a certain commitment to the idea that a good will can be efficacious in the world