Friendship vs Honesty

The latest Thinking Out Loud podcast has been released on iTunes. The session was recorded Wednesday, Nov 7, and the topic was "To whom or what do we have the greater obligation, a friend or the principle of honesty?" Thank you Billie, George, John, U.J., and our two cyber participants, Debbie Martin from Boca Raton, Fl, and Steve Stokes from Atlanta, GA, for a great discussion. Having two long distance participants at once is a new milestone for us. Yea!! (If any of you other out-of-towners or someone you know would like to connect long distance as well, let me know. There is still room for more.)

Here are some of the questions we wrestled with:

Is it okay to lie to avoid hurting a friend's feelings? Is it okay to lie to protect a friend from physical harm? What about for profit or simply to avoid embarrassment? What is "situational ethics" and does it apply here? In situational ethics, if there are no universal rules that apply to every situation, what criteria should we use? Who is and is not a friend? Do friends ask friends to lie? Does friendship imply obligation? Where do obligations come from? Are obligations externally imposed or internally chosen? What are the boundaries of friendship? Is telling the truth always a virtue? Is it friendlier to be discrete or to confront? What are the alternatives? Who owns the truth? Does one have the right to demand of another that they keep private information private? Does one have the right to impose the truth on someone who does not want to hear it? Is there a gender difference in the level of confidentiality expected in a friendship? Do different rules apply to different degrees of friendship? At what point is it right to end a friendship to protect one's principles? Can civil laws resolve conflicting virtues? Should confidentiality laws always be obeyed? Is there a higher law to resolve conflicts of virtues? If so, what is it?

To subscribe to the podcast with your podcast software (such as iTunes or iPodder) copy and past the following link into your software:

www.citizenphilosopher.com/rss/tol_podcasts.xml

If you have iTunes, you can find us listed in the Apple Music Store directory under Podcasts/Society & Culture/Philosophy, or just do a search in iTunes on Thinking Out Loud People. The direct iTunes link is:

phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=214321935

If you don't have iTunes or other podcast software and just want to download the mp3 file directly, use this link:

Listen to the broadcast (mp3)

You are invited to add your thoughts by clicking on the "comments" link at the lower right hand corner of this post.

The next Thinking Out Loud will be Wednesday, December 5, at 7:00 pm. No topic has been chosen yet although several suggest themselves from our last discussion. The following spring to mind:

1. What is friendship?
2. What is conscience?
3. What is betrayal?
4. What is responsibility?

To elaborate on #4, if we accept the notion of universal human rights, does that also imply universal human responsibilities? If so, what are they?

These are just my initial thoughts. Your suggestions/refinements to these or other ideas for our next topic are most welcome. Send your ideas to me and I will circulate them among the group for feedback.

Also in order is congratulations to Uriah J. Fields (UJ) for the publication of his new book "The Saint Troubadour - Speaking and Singing Truth and Love" available from both www.amazon.com and www.bn.com (Barnes & Noble) - ISBN: 1424183588 (6 x9 413pp). Way to go UJ. And check out his web site for some of his other writings - www.uriahfields.com.


Cheers,

Steve