Saint Augustine on lying

Saint Augustine analyzed the concept “lie” in all its aspects taking into the consideration intention of lying, moral side of liar, his will and circumstances which provoked lying. Without doubt, one can observe that philosopher indicated that strong will can prevent us from lying. Will is the possibility to make one's own decision, to choose one's own actions, to determine what is good and what is evil. 

Saint Augustine affirmed that it would be unmoral to lie in any case, even if you want to rescue another life or to save one's own life. As we see he was not the supporter of lying. He supposed that the action with an evil moral object is never justified in any case.

Saint Augustine distinguished such types of lying: 

1. lies in religion
2. lies that only damage and benefit nobody
3. lies that damage other people and benefit somebody
4. lies told for the delight of lying
5. lies told to satisfy others
6. lies that are harmful to nobody and that benefit someone
7. lies which are not harmful that save someone's life
8. lies that damage nobody and that save someone's “chastity”

Saint Augustine supposed that jokes or mistakes are not lying because when we listened to jokes we feel that the tone of voice and mood of joker render that his intention is to make us laugh but not to deceit us. The philosopher emphasized the importance of intention of the speaker and told that even truth thought false by the speaker is a lie.

Saint Augustine concludes that it would not be moral to lie in any circumstance, not even to save an innocent life, and not even to save one’s self from rape. Even dire circumstances do not justify lying. In terms of the three fonts of morality, i.e. intention, moral object and circumstances, Saint Augustine says that an evil act is never justified by any circumstance.

A good intention does not make behavior that is intrinsically disordered, such as lying and calumny, good or just. He states that intrinsically disordered acts (or evil acts) cannot be justified by any intention. 

Saint Augustine stated that free will existed and people can choose to choose good (truth, sincerity) or to choose evil (lie). Man can choose a life of good will himself. According to Saint Augustine all kinds of lies are sinful in its entity and ruin moral principles of behaviour. Augustine claimed that a lie should never be told for any man's civil life (at the earth), since the value of such is one's everlasting (at the paradise) life. 

Truth is what stands the test of experience ... Albert Einstein

Always stand for what is right even if it means you are standing alone

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A lie consists in speaking a falsehood and even without the intention of deceiving, lying is a wrong thing. Many persons take the position that it would be impossible to determine whether a lie is morally evil without knowing the intention and the circumstances, i.e the totality of the foreseeable good and bad consequences. This position is rejected as an evil moral object makes an act immoral, regardless of intention or circumstances, since lying is an evil and evil acts are always immoral, regardless of intention or circumstances.

Modi's foreign trips

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited 38 countries (visiting some countries more than once) making 19 international trips till 8 June, 2016, traveling abroad for 97 of 743 days since he assumed office on 26 May, 2014.

Modi’s predecessor Manmohan Singh visited 23 countries (visiting some countries more than once) leaving the country 17 times during his second term in office over a similar period, until 8 June, 2011, traveling 76 of 747 days since he assumed office on 22 May, 2009. During his first term, Singh travelled for 64 days over a similar period, visiting 15 countries making 16 international trips (visiting some countries more than once) between 22 May, 2004 and 8 June, 2006.

The foreign trips of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet colleagues cost the exchequer Rs.567 crore in the last financial year (2015-16), an increase of more than 80% from the previous year. This is besides the over Rs 500 crore his bureaucrats spend on their travel each year on an average. The total tour expenses of the PM and his ministers went up from Rs 269 crore as estimated in the budget at the beginning of the 2015-16 fiscal to Rs 567 crore, as per the revised estimates towards the end of the year.

Ms.Sushma Swaraj, Union External Affairs Minister is doing excellent job as far as arranging Modi's visits to various countries. What else she is doing, I don't know. For this reason she got very high marks in the recent minister's evaluation got done by Modi.

Some hilarious jokes on Modi's foreign jaunts:

Someone asked what will happen after Modi's present foreign trip; answer is : another foreign trip

There are two types of countries in this world
   a) Modi visited
   b) Modi not visited.

Our last prime minister was on Silent mode, current prime minister is on Flight mode.

The only gain from Modi's jaunt seems to be a temple in the UAE.

My View:
Not withstanding tall claims, the benefits of of PM's foreign visits can not be quantified or measurable. The announcements made at the end of each visit are only intentions but actual happenings later are quite different. Most don't happen at all. However, too many trips in short duration will be viewed with suspicion and must be avoided.

Finally, what we are and do speaks more loudly than what we present ourselves.
Meaning that we must do ground work for inviting foreign investments properly and FDI's will flow in like water in pipeline with little campaigning.