LYING AS UNACCEPTABLE CRUELTY IN KANT’S THEORY

The article considers the limits of unacceptable cruelty (inhuman, unworthy person) in Kant and whether lying meets these limits. Research has shown that the “Murderer at the Door” paradox greatly discredited Kant’s ethical teaching (Kant replied that one should not lie even to a murderer who has come to kill your friend) and even led to accusations that Kant was aiding and abetting the Holocaust, but Kant’s theory did not presuppose harm to living beings (according to Kant, man's duty is to preserve human nature) and respect for human dignity, and lying is exactly the denial of dignity, therefore it should be considered unacceptable inhuman cruelty towards oneself and others. The limits of unacceptable cruelty are that which violates human dignity, and lying is a conscious and consistent denial of dignity, which is directly opposed to “the natural purpose of man’s ability to communicate his thoughts, and is therefore a denial of his personality”, so a liar – this is “only one deceptive appearance of a person, not the person himself”. Dignity for Kant is to be a person (any person, not necessarily a kind person, or some special person – Kant denied the existence of different categories of people – more worthy and less worthy. For example, he did not assume the existence of “people not worthy of the truth”. However, according to Kant, to be human is also to have “a duty to oneself in the development and improvement of one’s natural perfection”.