While nominal apologies are mostly just a fancy way of telling “lying,” it can also mean circumventing the truth, being vague about the truth, or even delaying someone`s response, especially to avoid telling them the whole truth. In the 16th century, the word was used to mean “to go astray” or “to step out of line”. It comes from the Latin root praevaricari, which literally translates to “to go crooked”. Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article on half-truth William Safire defines a half-truth for political purposes as “a statement sufficiently precise to require explanation; And the longer the explanation, the more likely it is that there will be a public reaction of half-faith. [4] The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead is said to have said: “There are no whole truths; All truths are half-truths. She tries to treat them as whole truths playing to hell. [6] If true, statements or truths, which Whitehead says are all half-truths, are subject to misleading and false conclusions. The purpose and/or consequence of a half-truth is to bring out something that is really only a belief as knowledge or a truthful statement in order to present the whole truth or possibly lead to a false conclusion. According to the theory of the justified true belief of knowledge, to know that a given sentence is true, one must not only believe in the relevant true proposition, but also have a good reason for it. A half-truth misleads the recipient by presenting something credible and using those aspects of the statement that may turn out to be true as a good reason to believe that the statement is true in its entirety or that the statement represents the whole truth. A person who is deceived by a half-truth regards the statement as knowledge and acts accordingly.
You can read more about the legal issues in our guide “Misrepresentation: The Pitfalls of Pre-Contractual Declarations”. Certain forms of half-truths are an inescapable part of politics in representative democracies. A political candidate`s reputation can be irreparably damaged if exposed by a lie, so a complex style of language has evolved to minimize the likelihood of this happening. If someone didn`t say anything, they can`t be accused of lying. As a result, politics has become a world where half-truths are expected and political statements are rarely taken literally. [3] Richard Brodie links half-truths to memes, writing, “The veracity of any statement depends on the assumptions you make when you look at it—the different memes you use when you think about it.” [7] Brodie views half-truths as a necessary part of human interaction because they allow for the practical application of ideas when it is not practical to convey all the information necessary for a fully informed decision, although some half-truths can lead to false conclusions or conclusions in the world of logic. Whether a literally true statement can also be a misrepresentation is an open question. Although the Diogo Court held that a truthful statement in extenso cannot be characterized as a false statement, in United States v. Rodgers, 624 F.2d 1303, 1310-11 (5th Cir. 1980), cert. denied, 450 U.S.
917 (1981). This problem can often be avoided by presenting the accusation as “concealing a material fact” rather than a false statement or misrepresentation. Diogo, 320 F.2d 902. In his 1990 book The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of 1989 Witness in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin and Prague, Timothy Garton Ash answered Václav Havel`s call to “live in the truth”: Andrew Wanambwa and Frances Simm from our trade dispute resolution team led a seminar this morning on misrepresentation claims, including the legal risks associated with pre-contractual representations. the types of claims that can be made in the event of a problem and the various remedies available. This is a summary of some of the key points discussed. A half-truth is a misleading statement that contains an element of truth. The statement may be partially true, the statement may be completely true but only part of the entire truth, or it may use a misleading element such as false punctuation or double meaning, especially if the intent is to deceive, circumvent, blame, or distort the truth. [1] The concept of half-truths existed in different cultures, which led to several epigrammatic sayings. Apologies are when someone tells a lie, especially in a sneaky way.
A child can use excuses to avoid telling the whole truth about how the kitchen window was broken. As for what parties should not do, the team cautioned against assuming that contractual guarantees will always be effective in avoiding liability, nor should it be presumed that there can be no liability for expressions of opinion or statements of intent – implied representations are just as dangerous as explicit statements and promises. Now, we expect a lot from politicians in a well-functioning parliamentary democracy. But “living in the truth” is not one of them. In fact, the nature of democratic politics could rather be described as “half-truth work.” At its core, parliamentary democracy is a system of limited contradictory lies, in which each party tries to present part of the truth as if it were the whole. [5] 18 U.S.C. § 1001 requires that the statement or representation be actually false, and the government has the burden of proving the alleged falsity of the statement. Webster`s 3d International Dictionary defines the adjective “false” as “does not correspond to truth or reality”.
While a statement may be misleading, unauthorized or even fraudulent, a conviction under this section cannot generally be confirmed unless the statement is also false. See United States v. Diogo, 320 F.2d 898, 905-09 (2d Cir. 1963) (literally true that the defendant married). The law also covers half-truths where there is a duty to tell the truth – such as an affidavit before an authority.
