A Philosophy of Lying
Lars Svendsen, Matt Bagguley (trans. from Norwegian) (Reaktion Books, 2022), 122 pages, notes, index.
A Philosophy of Lying bills itself as a “comprehensive investigation of lying in everyday life.” The intelligence profession is not under the microscope, but the book raises a number of issues that practitioners might find worthy of further reflection or exploration. While the author has occasional missteps, his material could easily form the basis for discussion in an intelligence-themed TED Talk or classes on intelligence ethics or leadership.
The author, Lars Svendsen, a philosophy professor at the University of Bergen in Norway, is not as well known to US readers as fellow Scandinavian Sissela Bok, the Swedish-American famous for her award-winning 1978 work, Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life. But what Svendsen lacks in name recognition, he makes up for in delivering a product readily accessible to lay readers.
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