Question

What would Kant likely say about the moral permissibility of lying on a resume? (A thorough answer to this question will tell me both what he thinks and why he thinks it).

Answer 1

Immanuel Kant moral philosophy talks about the moral obligations humans have towards the society in general and towards each other, even towards oneself. The ideas of right and wrong and how one is compelled towards these ideas. Kant always views lying as something immoral or unethical. Kant believes that one needs to have a knowledge of reasoning which can help one to understand what’s moral and immoral. He insists that one should always act as per how things ought to be and not how they are in the first place. According to his philosophy, Kant in his first formulation points out that one needs to act according to the way things ought to be. He cites an example of a man lending money from someone when he knows he will not be able to return it. He therefore is lying to the man from whom he is lending money from. What he clearly means here is one should always say and do things which he really means and has done.

When we talk about the moral permissibility of lying on a resume, I think and believe, that this would be considered immoral and unethical to Kant as he always believes that rational beings need to say and do things which ‘ought to be’ rather than how they are. In a resume, people generally inflate their experience which they may not have been done by them previously. Kant believes when one person lies to another, he uses the second person as means to get what he wants and hence disregards his moral worth. He believes that rational beings must create laws which should benefit the community in general. Hence lying in any form contradicts this and benefits none. Neither the individual nor the community. By lying, one contradicts the positive progression of a community. Lying, to him, cannot be universalised and hence cannot be justified in anyway.