Gurevich P.S. Irresistible Temptations of Lie

Abstract: The article is devoted to lying as an irresistible human temptation. Immanuel Kant believed deception and misbelief to be doubtlessly evil so he taught us to be honest. The German philosopher also believed that too much lying could destroy the society. However, other philosophers were not so categorical about that issue. For example, Friedrich Nietzsche believed that neither truth nor lie could be the basis for social existence. The author of the present article pays attention to the paradoxical perplexity of deception and truth in individual and social life. In particular, he notes that being raised by illusion, art often reveals the true problems of human existence. In his research Gurevich has used the philosophical anthropology methodology which allows to see contradictory sides of each phenomenon. Starvation for truth and deception is being viewed by the author as the human needs that are difficult to be satisfied. For the first time in the academic literature the author of the article raises a question about consequences of the universal interest for truth and lie and demonstrates how dangerous it is to arrange social life based on illusions and deception. From this point of view, the author conducts a critical analysis of Immanuel Kant's, Friedrich Nietzsche's and Erich Fromm's concepts. Interpreting Freud's theory, American philosophers paid attention only to achieving the truth during psychotherapy but ignored paradoxical aspiration of humans for day-dreaming and delusional or virtual aspects of life. 

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