TOK presentation about lies

[kristinemjs]

Hello, I would be very happy if someone could help me out with something for my last TOK presentation

 

So the knowledge question I am working on at the moment is: "When we are telling lies, we are sometimes also telling the truth. To what extent is this true?"

 

I have many examples for when we tell lies and really lie - when there is not truth behind it.

But I am having some trouble coming up with examples for when we lie - and at the same time, tell a "hidden truth" through the lie??

 

I though I made an easy task for myself, but apparently I did not..

 

Any suggestions?  

[Vioh]

Hello, I would be very happy if someone could help me out with something for my last TOK presentation

 

So the knowledge question I am working on at the moment is: "When we are telling lies, we are sometimes also telling the truth. To what extent is this true?"

 

I have many examples for when we tell lies and really lie - when there is not truth behind it.

But I am having some trouble coming up with examples for when we lie - and at the same time, tell a "hidden truth" through the lie??

 

I though I made an easy task for myself, but apparently I did not..

 

Any suggestions?

 

Have you watched the movie The Terminal (2004) yet? Because I think there are several examples in it that kinda resemble what you are asking for. Here are 2 examples that I found (spoiler alert):

• In the movie, Viktor Navorski is stuck at an airport in New York for 9 months because he has an invalid passport and visa. So he's allowed to walk inside the airport but he's forbidden to step outside the airport's exit gate (which is guarded by the police); i.e. "America is closed". However, Frank Dixon (the airport manager) doesn't want Viktor to be the airport's responsibility; so he ordered the guards to leave the gate for 5 minutes, and then told Viktor that "America is opened" (which is a lie that would trick Viktor to leave the airport such that the police has the reason to arrest him). Obviously, this is a lie (because Viktor isn't allowed to step out of the airport unless he has a valid passport/visa). But if we look at the literal meaning of the sentence "America is opened", then we can see that it does contain some truths in it because the guards are not standing there at the gate.
• During his time at the airport, Viktor met Amelia. Because he is not allowed to leave the airport, he is technically "delayed", and that's also what he told to Amelia (who actually thought that Viktor's flight is delayed). Obviously, this is a lie but technically, it does carry some truths in it because what he's saying could actually mean that his plan is delayed rather than his flight.

There might be more examples in the movie, so if you want to pursue this topic, I'd recommend you to watch the movie (it's really funny btw). Also, has your teacher approved your topic yet? Personally, I don't think that your knowledge question above is a knowledge question at all, because the way that you phrased your question makes it seem like it doesn't have anything to do with knowledge at all. Furthermore, you can't just spend the whole presentation talking only about truths and lies (because then the topic would be too narrow). What I would suggest you to do is to change the knowledge question to something along the line of how important language is to our interpretation of the world. Or maybe you can talk about the danger of interpreting language through its literal meanings, rather than exploring the actual meaning of the language through logic, reasoning, and common sense. I don't have any concrete knowledge questions in mind because I simply don't know what you want to talk about, but if you do something along that lines I've suggested, I think you'll be fine. Also, make sure that you discuss your ideas carefully with your teacher. Don't wander off on your own! Good luck