The Libraries will be performing routine maintenance on UWSpace on July 15th-16th, 2025. UWSpace will be available, though users may experience service lags during this time. We recommend all users avoid submitting new items to UWSpace until maintenance is completed.
 

Everything Is Going to Be Okay, Right? Kindness, Compassion, and the Moral Permissibility of Self-Deception

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Date

2012-09-28T16:28:00Z

Authors

Heffernan, Christine

Advisor

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of Waterloo

Abstract

Most people seem to have the intuition that self-deception is always and obviously wrong. In this thesis, I make the case that under certain circumstances, self-deception can actually do a great deal of good and ought to be morally permissible – especially in cases where it would be life-threatening, dehumanizing, or cruel to insist on complete authenticity. I argue that self-deception can be rational and that it can also sometimes be morally permissible to allow the self-deception of others to go unchallenged, especially in cases where the opportunity to exercise compassion, empathy, and kindness towards each other takes precedence over a concern for truth. I then confront self-deception’s staunchest opponents, the Existentialists, who maintain that self-deception is never morally permissible because it conflicts with their supreme value, authenticity. I focus specifically on the work of Nietzsche and Sartre and identify the various problems that arise from their objections to self-deception. I conclude this thesis with some suggestions as to why so many people might have come to believe that authenticity is the supreme value, when a closer investigation suggests that it probably is not.

Description

Keywords

self-deception, authenticity

LC Subject Headings

Citation

Collections