When I tell people it's possible to say something that isn't true while remaining intentionally honest, many of them are very taken aback. To many people, you can't say something that isn't true and still be an honest person. In fact, this seems like a contradiction in terms, or even a paradox - it's just impossible to them. This is because many people confuse accuracy with honesty, when they aren't the same thing at all.
Mistakes Aren't Lies
Hundreds of years ago, many people believed the earth was the center of the universe. Towering Greek intellects such as Aristotle and Ptolemy worked out complex scientific explanations for how this was true. Mystics, scholars and scientists set up mathematically-based systems of astronomical calculations which all banked on this idea that the earth was at the center of the entire universe and everything else revolved around it. Teachers in the best universities taught the principles of geocentric astronomy to their students for generations with absolute conviction that it was an accurate theory about the known universe.
Years later, during the Renaissance era, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus published a theory that the sun, our solar system's star, was the motionless center of the universe, and all other objects, including the earth, revolved around it. Copernican heliocentrism took science and religion by a storm at the time. Theologians even considered it heretical, because it made a liar out of the Bible, which they interpreted to say that the earth was God's primary focus of attention and also, presumably, the center of the universe.
Both theories were wrong, of course. With just as much conviction as both Copernicus and Ptolemy, we know now that there is no such thing as the center of the universe (with the possible exception of New York City, hee).
However, if tomorrow it's discovered that the universe does have a center, we'll simply be wrong, not liars. Likewise, the Ancient Greek people who believed that the earth was the center of the universe past weren't lying when they taught this principle to their children. They weren't even ethically responsible for having based their opinions on flimsy research. All their knowledge and scientific data available at the time pointed to the fact that the universe revolved around our planet.
So, they were just wrong. In this way, people can be wrong and still be honest, when the intent was to convey accurate information. No one is omniscient, but we can all make the effort to consistently relay the most accurate information we have available. This is the ethical crux behind the philosophy of Consistent Honesty.
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