Do you lie to friends?

[Thorne]

I don't know. Can you give me some examples?

If you see your friend's husband out with another woman, do you tell her what you saw, or do you not say anything about it (a lie of omission)?

After all, you may not know the circumstances. It might be completely innocent, and she might even know about it. Saying something might make her think you are trying to destroy her faith in her husband. That would affect your friendship.

But if you say nothing and she later learns you knew and didn't say anything, that will affect your friendship, too.

[thir]

As said in the other mail, sorry to drop out of the conversation like that but as you probably guessed, IT connection vanished.

If you see your friend's husband out with another woman, do you tell her what you saw, or do you not say anything about it (a lie of omission)?

After all, you may not know the circumstances. It might be completely innocent, and she might even know about it. Saying something might make her think you are trying to destroy her faith in her husband. That would affect your friendship.

But if you say nothing and she later learns you knew and didn't say anything, that will affect your friendship, too.

I understand this as an example of 'lie by omission'. So, first, I do not think that such a situation or similar is a lie in and of itself (if you do not tell). You can identify a lie easily as saying something you know is not correct, but 'lie by omission' is not identifiable the same way - so it seems to me. It depends entirely on the situation.

If I just saw the husband of a friend with another woman, I probably would think nothing of it and would not think of mentioning it, unless it happened to come up in a conversation.

If said friend had talked to me about being afraid that her husband was unfaithful, I guess I would mention it.

If said husband was kissing the woman passionately, I would have to consider whether it was none of my business, or if I had an obligation to tell.

Hm. I think the concept of lie by omission only makes real sense to me in situations where I have a clear obligation to inform of something, and do not.