Biological Ethics

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Chapter 6. Rights and Duties Regarding the Truth

F. Ponz

a) The human quest for truth

Man wants to have a true knowledge of reality, he wants to know the truth of things. Everyone experiences this desire to know as something that derives from his nature. Human intelligence is hungry for truth, it wants to find valid answers to many questions, it is open to all truth and to all class of truths.

It is true that, in fact, this universal striving for truth must be directed, in accordance with personal limitations, towards those truths which most attract attention, or which most directly affect each individual. But every truth has in itself a force of attraction.

When a truth is discovered, it seems as if a light is turned on in the intelligence, one obtains greater clarity and peace of mind, one feels joyfully enriched. However, after each truth is achieved, new questions are usually raised, which encourage us to continue working to find the right answers. This explains why man seeks to learn and increase his knowledge throughout his life, and why, with the cooperation of many throughout history, scientific and technological progress has taken place and continues unceasingly, and human knowledge increases and deepens. Reality is continually bombarding man with its presence and he feels compelled to learn more and more about it, sometimes in a particularly pressing way.

development This human quest for truth, which is inherent in human nature, is in itself a good thing. It has a high ethical value, because it contributes to the development of one's own personality, it is an intellectual enrichment that enables one's own life to be guided in a way that is more in keeping with the nature of things, and it can - and often must - be put at the service of others. If one thinks about it a little, one soon discovers that this is not only a legitimate and good pursuit, but that the search for truth often implies a moral duty. Man, in fact, has the duty to use the intelligence he possesses, he cannot renounce it, he does not have the right to put it in the boot of useless junk; he must use it to know the truth, to act with discernment in his free decisions and observe a conduct staff manager , to be competent and effective in the exercise of the profession or activity in which he works; and also to contribute, to the best of his or her ability, to the collective effort to increase human knowledge and to ensure that society is shaped according to principles and rules based on truth.

The way of life of our days, the urgency of the mechanical succession from one activity to another, the facilities offered for material well-being and the desire for comfort, the satisfaction of sensibility, often lead man to live almost without thinking, like an automaton, to question himself little about the great questions that affect him most deeply, about his origin, his destiny, the reason for his life, his true happiness, his mission statement and his responsibilities before others, etc.., and limit his interest only to those questions that can be immediately translated into a more comfortable life staff and greater economic comfort. This dulling of interest in transcendent truths easily leads to falling into the pure pragmatism of those who only seek the most pleasurable survival and prefer an agnostic attitude to the most compromising issues. Paradoxically, this attitude is often accompanied by the uncritical and unquestioning acceptance of the most widespread commonplaces and the most commonly reiterated slogans. And at the same time, in the ultimate search for self, awareness of the ethical rightness of actions is distorted and obscured, easily confusing good with what gives pleasure, and evil with what is unpleasant and unpleasant. It is enough, however, that unforeseen circumstances of some consideration arise, to feel dissatisfaction, to realise the need to pause and reflect more deeply, to rekindle the desire to find true answers.

b) The search for truth

Intellectual effort and critical rigour

The satisfaction of the human quest for truth is rarely found immediately. Some truths can be known with the immediacy of the self-evident. But in most cases it is more or less costly for the human intellect to know the truth; it must be discovered through a painstaking and laborious search, with intellectual effort and critical rigour.

Moreover, our partial and progressive way of knowing means that, when we reach the truth about something, that truth does not exhaust by any means all the reality we consider; although that truth enriches the spirit and satisfies it, it immediately opens up new questions, new aspects appear that we want to know, new truths that the one we have discovered allows us to glimpse. And this happens again and again, because the intelligence yearns to know in fullness. Limitations of time or means force us to renounce many possible searches for truth, to travel the laborious and difficult path that leads to the truth, leaving aside many questions, in order to deal with that which, for various reasons, interests us most.

It is easy to understand, in any case, that if anyone has to put intellectual effort and critical rigour into the search for truth, all the more so should these qualities be demanded of the most talented people, of professionals who have been educated in centres of Education higher education, as is the case with university students, because this level educational supposes precisely the highest development of the intellectual habits required to search for and discern the truth and, consequently, increases responsibility.

The effort required to overcome the difficulties encountered in the search for truth should not be a reason for giving up the search for truth. Study, reflection, careful and tenacious experimentation, however painful they may be, always receive the award of intellectual satisfaction from the finding of the true.

Sometimes because of a lack of talent, sometimes because of a shortage of time for due consideration, sometimes because of a narrow-minded focus on one's own specialization program and a superficial interest in other matters, or even because of the sheer convenience of not thinking, it is nevertheless common to ignore many subjects of great importance to man, or to admit fundamental errors in them.

It is easy to observe that many people allow themselves to be carried away by their first impressions, by mere appearances; that they accept, without further ado, as good what they hear someone else say, read in a newspaper or listen to on television, without subjecting it to the minimum staff required by the most elementary critical rigour. Prejudice, convenience staff or the unconfessable search for a false justification for some dubious action can lead people to take as true what is not true. All this is a regrettable abdication of the right and duty to know the truth. For the human being manager, especially if he has a higher cultural level, must subject the assertions that are made, the information that is transmitted, to criticism; he must weigh them, examine their internal congruence, contrast them with reality, contemplate the issues from different points of view, in order to acquire a reasonable certainty about things.

On the scientific research - All of this, which is generally valid, is clearly applicable in the specific field of the biologist's scientific and professional work. An example of this is the approach of a research. One wishes to address the knowledge of something that is unknown and that for some reason attracts the interest of researcher. You want to find an answer to a question. But first of all you have to find out whether the question has already been answered and the ignorance is simply staff, because others have already found the truth you want to know. To do this, the honest thing to do is to check the bibliography, study manuals, monographs, scientific journals, to find out if the problem has already been solved by others, since to do otherwise can lead to discovering Mediterranean ones, with considerable loss of time and money, and to taking as original finding what has been the fruit of someone else's work , with the consequent lack of ethics.

Once you are convinced that the problem has not yet been solved, it is generally advisable, before starting a research, to prepare the corresponding project, a task that has a considerable formative value and increases the performance of work. It requires that the problem to be solved is well formulated, its terms well defined, the assumptions on which it is based, and the interest of what is to be investigated. By specifying the goal, possible provisional hypotheses and questions that could provide a solution to the problem are formulated. It identifies methods for testing the validity of these hypotheses and the most appropriate techniques for carrying out the correct tests to confirm or reject the various possibilities. An implementation programme can also be drawn up, estimating the order of succession of the different stages of project and the time required for each of them, in accordance with the material and human resources available. All this undoubtedly requires a great deal of study and reflection, but it saves a lot of useless experimental work .

In carrying out the planned research , the various experiments must be carried out as accurately as possible on internship, and the results must be analysed, their reliability assessed; their causes must be interpreted, their significance discussed, until it can be established whether or not the hypothesis was correct. It is not good to be carried away by simple impressions, you have to measure, contrast and check until you are sufficiently convinced. Intuitions are valuable for formulating hypotheses, but these must then be tested.

The research therefore demands of the biologist a strenuous and persevering intellectual activity, in which discouragement and the temptation to stray along lines that seem more easily accessible must be overcome. And throughout, critical rigour, logical reasoning, the mental discipline essential to discover, contrast and penetrate the truth, must be present as a well-established habit.

In the function professor.- Another example of the duty to apply effort and intellectual rigour in the search for truth is that of the activity professor to which not a few biologists dedicate themselves.

Teaching involves making available to the student the main knowledge of discipline, which the teacher has had to acquire beforehand. The knowledge corresponding to that discipline can be found in books and other scientific publications, which are the sources from which the teacher has to be trained. To master a scientific field sufficiently in Degree , to know in depth the main truths that have been reached so far, requires many hours of study. The accelerated progress of the research also requires the teacher to follow the scientific production in order to keep up to date. In all this work, the teacher has to form his or her own criteria about what he or she reads, from agreement with the authority and credit that each author deserves and with the coherence and scientific basis of the interpretations offered. It is necessary to consider the solidity or weakness of the arguments that are presented, to reflect on what one reads, to form personal convictions about things, that is to say, one must also put in, as for research, a lot of effort and intellectual rigour. Only when we are convinced by what we read do we truly make it our own. On the other hand, when we discover less convincing aspects, the inadequacy of an argument, the lack of a basis for certain conclusions, issues of possible research and desires for further study arise.

Once you have mastered a subject personally, you are in a position to select the basic points to be explained on class, and to structure the exhibition in such a way as to make it accessible to student and to arouse interest. It is then that the class becomes lively and does not become a pure and cold transmission of knowledge that has not been made one's own.

In ordinary human affairs: The intellectual habit of searching for truth with effort and critical rigour, a consequence of man's duty to make use of his intelligence to guide his conduct correctly and to serve society, is of the greatest interest not only in the deontological field of professional practice, but in all other aspects of human life. It is a very valuable element for discerning what is right from what is wrong in the most diverse issues and situations that arise in man's life.

Thanks to this habit, it is easy to discover the inadequacy of an argument, even if it is concealed in elegant clothing or sounding expressions; it is perceived that an assertion, however forceful it may be, may lack a basis, may not be a legitimate conclusion. Citizens accustomed to critical analysis are not easy prey to slogans that seek to impose something by dint of reiterating it in many ways and with manifest tenacity; they have greater defences to resist propaganda, they do not unthinkingly accept what they want to make them believe. Those who can appreciate the error of a statement will not accept it as truth no matter how many times it is repeated, no matter how many people share it.

In the same vein, those who have educated their intelligence are much more protected against manipulation, they do not allow themselves to be manipulated instrumentally according to the interests of others, and it is much more difficult for them to become the plaything of anyone. He acts out of conviction and is only convinced by the truth. That is why he only follows someone when he is convinced of the truth in him and that he deserves to be followed because the truth he speaks is light for his life.

The wealth of means available for influencing public opinion, for overturning circumstantial states of opinion and unthinking mass reactions of a certain sign, represent a strong temptation for their self-interested use by those who hold sway over them. And the most powerful barrier against such attempts to manipulate the people is the reflexive and rigorous habit of searching for the truth. One is the less a portion of an inert mass, the more one is oneself, the more one's self is active and strong, the more one exercises one's intelligence and the more freely and consciously one decides one's own will. For this reason, he who is truly a person and not a passive element of a mass, does not allow himself to be manipulated, does not allow himself to be dragged along by what is "said" or "done" around him, nor by the attitudes or opinions of the majority. The intellectual, cultivated man sees clearly that the fact that there are many who behave in a certain way is not enough to endorse that this is what should be done; he understands that however many there are who accept the error as truth, that error will continue to be so; it is very clear to him that truth lies in conformity with the reality of things and is not result of human consensus between groups, nor of majority endorsements.

In ordinary human life there are a number of personal convictions which decisively inform behaviour, which are like the roots of human behaviour. It is important that these convictions are rightly formed, that they correspond to the truth about man and things. To err in these matters has harmful consequences for oneself and for others. There is, therefore, a particular obligation to seek the truth about them, with careful study and reflection, with a sincere attitude of commitment to it, even if it often involves costly sacrifices.

Critical rigour in the face of the testimony of others: Many truths, even those that refer to the science itself, are acquired through the certainty of faith, through the testimony of others who manifest themselves to us in one way or another, very often through the most varied types of publications. Here, too, critical rigour must be applied, both in order to ascertain the internal congruence of such truths and their adequacy with other truths known to us, and to grant guarantees of credibility to those who affirm them, based on their talent, their scientific seriousness, their authority in the subject, their intellectual honesty. If we observe in an author lightness, superficiality; if he allows himself to be carried away by prejudices that distort reality or reasoning; if he starts from manifest errors, is not very goal, judges facts with partiality, or tells half-truths, there is no doubt that he will not be worthy of our trust, we will not give value to his testimony.

It is logical that the conditions required for the acceptance of truth should be all the more demanding, the more important that truth is, the more serious the consequences of admitting or rejecting it. For this reason, the truths concerning man's eternal destiny demand full authority from the one who reveals them to us, the impossibility of being deceived or of deceiving ourselves, which is exclusive to God.

Truths that need to be known

Although man's intelligence is in principle open to all truth, to the knowledge of all reality, it is not possible for him to know everything; it is, as we saw before, very limited. There are, however, truths which a given man is obliged to strive to know, because of the activity in which he is engaged, or because of his personal circumstances, and there are also truths which everyone should attain.

Truths related to one's own profession: The scientific field corresponding to one's professional dedication must obviously be the object of a conscientious search for truth. The professional vocation supposes in those who possess it a particular interest and inclination towards the knowledge related to it and a special satisfaction on acquiring it, which is a stimulus for a continuous improvement in the exercise of the profession. Opting for a certain class activity implies, at the same time, a commitment to direct one's capacity to know, not exclusively, of course, in a certain direction.

But, in addition, every profession is a service to others, a contribution to society. And this service or contribution will be all the more valuable the greater the professional skill of the practitioner. Lack of effort staff to acquire the necessary professional training, or to keep it up to date, can cause manifest harm to others. Think of a doctor who, through incompetence, misdiagnoses or mistreats; or a lawyer who gives a wrong committee, or who loses a court case; or a construction worker who fails to ensure the correct setting of a structure, or the same happens with the biologist, whatever the activity in which he is engaged, teaching, research, consultancy, etc. The duty to improve one's knowledge of one's profession is clearly a duty of justice towards those who rely on the services of the professional.

It is true that not everyone in a profession can achieve the same level of skill in it. And it is also true that when one freely turns to a particular professional, one usually does so with some knowledge assurance that his or her skill is adequate to provide the service required of him or her. But this does not diminish the fact that everyone, in their own profession and according to their personal circumstances, has the duty to acquire the best possible preparation, the best possible Degree knowledge.

On the other hand, in society there is an interweaving of mutual relationships whereby everyone benefits from others and contributes to others. Social solidarity requires everyone to do what they can for the good of others, for the betterment of society as a whole. Those who do not do what they can, let the rest of mankind down. And there is no doubt that these duties of solidarity oblige everyone, in his or her professional activity in society, to strive for the highest quality of service.

The acquisition of culture: Man is not a simple element of work, who contributes to society through professional activity carried out well. We cannot confine ourselves to the field of our own specialization, because, in addition to being professionals, we are human beings. The human mind is open to all realities and is interested in many different values of culture, of the spirit, which attract it regardless of any utilitarianism subject . This noble interest cannot be considered as something to which one is entitled, a whim that should not be impeded; rather, it is a natural consequence of man's being, which implies a certain obligation to develop, on pain of self-reduction to subhuman levels.

Personal hobbies and circumstances will make this cultural development more oriented in some directions than in others, more or less Degree, but we should all be interested in a wide range of issues that affect us as human beings. The different manifestations of artistic creation, such as music, literature, the plastic arts, etc.; the main features of the history of humanity, the evolution of society, human thought; the wonders of nature, geographical formations, flora, fauna; and so many other fields of intellectual knowledge and aesthetic contemplation, can and should attract man's interest, albeit to varying degrees.

The truth about man: Finally, there are other questions which affect man in a very decisive way staff and which he cannot ignore; these are questions which concern the origin and end of man himself, the meaning of life, the value of other men, the meaning of every reality; to know the truth about all this, at least in the most fundamental sense, is a duty incumbent on everyone. The light shed by these transcendent truths is essential to establish the basic principles that must guide human conduct, the order of values that it is reasonable to attend to, the fundamental rights and duties that must govern the organisation of society. Error in these matters, whether unconsciously or freely chosen, gives rise to the greatest personal or collective aberrations.

To attain these truths one must penetrate into the nature of things and into man's own conscience. They are natural truths, which the rightly ordered intelligence can attain, but which are intensely illuminated by religious truth; they belong to both the natural and the religious sphere, they guide relations with God and with men, they affect the very core of the being staff of each one; man, in them, stakes his true happiness and his eternal destiny, he cannot remain indifferent to truths which refer to his end and to the order to which he has been called.

The very truths revealed by God for man's salvation are of vital interest to him, and he must therefore, in proportion to his ability, endeavour to investigate their authenticity and be ready to accept them if they appear to him to be worthy of credit . They are not inventions of philosophers or theologians. They are not inventions of philosophers or theologians, but are objective truths about man, which do not cease to be so because they are ignored, they respond like all truths to reality, they are unconditional truths, which exist independently of whether man knows how to find them or not, whether he admits them or rejects them, whether they satisfy him or displease him. They are not, therefore, the fruit of human opinion, nor of human tastes, but correspond to objective reality which man cannot alter, which he must strive to know.

Its obvious importance makes the search for this knowledge a duty for every human being, which demands the greatest attention. It would be absurd to aim to be an excellent expert in a certain scientific field and not worry about the meaning of life, the ultimate purpose that must preside over any action, the right motives that must guide the employment of the scientific knowledge acquired. In this way, the most spectacular achievements of scientific and technical progress could be used in the service of injustice, in support of ambition and despotism.

Human life is valued by the use one makes of one's freedom, by the loftiness of vision with which one's will moves, by the dignity of the goods one seeks, by the service one wishes to render to others. Hence the great importance - and the imperative duty - of acquiring the truth about man, a truth which cannot be reduced to material and economic values, not even to those which satisfy simple well-being, but which includes with much greater relevance the spiritual dimension, the concerns and dignity which belong to the human person, the values of the spirit, man's need to find justice, friendship and love.

To live with one's back turned to all this, to disdain the truth about man, would ultimately be to animalise oneself, to renounce the noblest and most distinctive qualities.

c) Truth, rule of thought and conduct

The truth compromises

Truth has the power of attraction and becomes, once acquired, a light for the will. Truth captivates and enamours, and at the same time commits. Whoever possesses a truth with sufficient certainty, pays consideration and respect to it, remains attached to it, and remains faithful to it. The love of truth is revealed in the eagerness to attain it and in the fidelity with which it is served personally.

When the truth about something is known, it is impossible to admit error about it. The truth is binding. If we are convinced of a truth, we cannot distort it, we cannot change it either on a whim or out of weakness. No reason of convenience, no mockery, no threats will be able to separate us from it, nor will they allow us to distort or deny it.

It would be quite another thing if we were to discover honestly that there was error in what we had previously thought to be certain truth. Then we would change our minds for other reasons, by sincerely convincing ourselves that we were not right, i.e. by conviction, but not by direct or indirect coercion.

The truth cannot be sold to personal interests. It is not possible to take for granted what we know to be wrong. We must have respect for those who hold different opinions and we must try to understand their reasons, because we will always discover at least aspects of truth in them. Respect is also due to those who openly err; but one cannot and must not compromise with what is surely error, and one must do one's utmost to enable those who are in error to understand the truth. The defence of the truth, on the other hand, although it often requires fortitude, should not be done with hurtful or unkind zeal, but should be shown to contemplation so that it may be understood.

On the other hand, in addition to fidelity in thought, truth demands congruence between truth and conduct. If we misuse our freedom, we can certainly act contrary to what the truth teaches, but the truth will still be in the mind and it will accuse in the conscience. If I know, for example, the truth about the value of human life, this truth requires me not to cooperate in an abortion, not to contribute to the death of an innocent person, it requires me to defend life; I must not, for false sentimental reasons, mockery or pressure, agree to act against what the truth commands me to do. To act otherwise, to give in against the truth, makes one fully responsible before God, before other people and before oneself.

Truthfulness

The duty of truthfulness: The love of truth can also be found at sample in truthfulness, that is, in the habit of conforming one's outward actions to what one thinks inwardly, in being faithful in expressing one's thoughts, in always saying what one understands to be true and in showing oneself to others as one is inwardly. Being truthful helps to ensure that truth, which is in itself a good available to everyone, a general good, reigns everywhere and governs relations between people. Truthfulness is a moral duty whose fulfilment affects the social dimension of man and facilitates human coexistence. Truthfulness is a permanent disposition of the will to faithfully manifest the truth knowledge staff , which is demanded by the dignity of the human person and by the duty of loyalty and well-being that man must have towards all other men, whoever they may be.

Human nature is ennobled by intelligence and will. Intelligence, as has already been said, tends towards truth, and the will to strive for truth is an important duty for man. Everything that manifests the truth and facilitates the access of others to the truth, elevates man. And anything which is misleading, which is untruthful, which hinders the right use of intelligence, which contradicts the natural right of every man to know the truth, to be told the truth, and which offends and harms human dignity.

Truthfulness occupies a very important place in the moral life of man. There can be no justice without love and truthfulness. And a lack of truthfulness is also a manifest lack of love between people. Without truthfulness, moral order in social life is impossible, because social life requires the communication of ideas, feelings, news, etc., on the basis that all of this corresponds to the truth, at least to what everyone honestly understands to be true. Without this condition, suspicion, mistrust and the most radical insecurity dominate human relations and society degrades into lack of solidarity and injustice, becoming unbearable and even unviable.

Truthfulness and prudence: This does not mean that any truth one knows should be made known to anyone. As will be seen below, there are circumstances in which to make a particular truth known would cause harm, and so should be avoided; and sometimes, even if it does not cause harm, it is not obligatory to make something known.

For this reason it must be made clear that there is an obligation to tell the truth, to discover and manifest the truth, unless there are prudential circumstances in which this obligation ceases, or there is even an obligation not to make known a particular truth. On the other hand, there is always an obligation not to be untruthful, not to speak out against one's own thoughts, never to lie to anyone.

Prudent truthfulness must find the middle ground between two mistaken attitudes: that of one who thinks that everything one knows must be statement to everyone, and that of one who consciously conceals the truth from those who have a right to know it, or even knowingly deceives another.

It would sometimes be a grave error to admit that everyone is capable of understanding and making correct use of any information. There are matters that one knows through personal confidences, as a consequence of an intimate relationship of friendship and that it would be improper, unfair or even infamous, to divulge; or that have been known due to the exercise of one's own professional activity as a lawyer, doctor, teacher, etc., with the sole purpose of making the requested professional use of this information, in general of any other, for the sole purpose of making the requested professional use of knowledge ; or which are family secrets, or those of the business or entity in which one works, which need not be known by others; or which refer to valuable systems or procedures, achieved with more or less effort, whose use by others may require legitimate authorisation and financial compensation and which it would be unfair to disclose. On the other hand, any person, like any entity or corporation, has the right not to have his or her privacy invaded, and is therefore perfectly entitled to refuse to answer questions that are the result of impertinent curiosity or insidious intent. The right to express the truth, freedom of expression, finds its limit when it causes harm to others, to the common good or to its foundations, or involves serious danger because it violates human rights and the dignity of the person.

reservationThe virtue of truthfulness, properly understood, must know how to harmonise the duty to tell the truth with the obligation to keep certain knowledge secret and with the right not to inform those who have no reason to know about something. The necessary sincerity in human relations must be reconciled with the important virtue, and sometimes serious duty, of knowing how to keep certain truths quiet. There are also situations in which openly expressing one's convictions may be inconvenient or counterproductive. And there are others in which concealing them may give rise to scandal or lead to error or deception. Prudence, courtesy, affection and respect contribute to knowing how to express one's convictions in the most appropriate place, at the most appropriate time and to the most appropriate extent.

Positive obligations of truthfulness: In relation to truthfulness there is the aforementioned duty to aspire to the knowledge of the truths that are necessary for man to reach his ultimate goal, in Degree corresponding to his professional training , and of the truths referring to the field of the profession that is exercised in society. The task of research of truth in the mathematical, physical and natural sciences, in the human and social sciences, and in general in all areas of knowledge, must also be respected, and the positive moral value of the advances of true knowledge and technological progress must be recognised, if they are used in the service of man and in accordance with his dignity.

One must be true, first of all, to oneself, in the sense of being a man of judgement, with convictions, and of being faithful in one's conduct to those convictions and to the moral principles that one recognises when one is not under the onslaught of passion. Truthfulness to oneself means a habitual attitude of rejection of the deceptions which, in certain situations, try to impose fantasy, passion or even cowardice, in order to find easy justification for what is seen as inconvenient without them.

To live as one thinks, to live agreement with the truth one possesses, is to live in truth, is to be authentic with oneself. One cannot be authentic if one's life is based on unreality or lies; one can only be authentic when one possesses certain, firm convictions, founded on truth, which give consistency and real meaning to one's life.

There is also an obligation to propagate the truth, to bring the truth, which is the common good, to other men. To instruct those who are ignorant, to teach those who do not know, is an excellent work which is a consequence of the love of truth and of human brotherhood. This duty extends especially to those truths which illustrate the nature and purpose of man, his eternal destiny and the means of attaining true happiness. In this sense, the believer has not only the right but also the duty to make known the religious truths which he believes lead to man's salvation.

It is also a duty, from agreement with personal circumstances, to spread and defend the truths on which the common good, the dignity of the person, human rights, moral principles and social coexistence are based.

It is not difficult to find applications of the duty of truthfulness peculiar to the professional activity of academics and biologists. Think, for example, of the scientific research , which seeks to get to the bottom of the knowledge of living beings, to understand their origin, their life, their relationships, in order to use them also legitimately in the service of man, aspirations and activity which, if they are correctly oriented, ennoble man. The honesty and fidelity of the serious scientist are incompatible with the distortion or manipulation of data of observation or experimental results; they require objectivity, veracity, the ability to overcome any temptation to distort them in order to adapt them to the verification of a preconceived hypothesis, or simply to avoid a more conscientious study and the repetition of experiments. It would also be untruthful to publish a scientific work who consciously conceals references to previous similar results achieved by other authors in order to claim the originality of a finding, or who wishes to appear as the author of a research in which he or she has not really participated; or who, because of school or nationalist prejudices, disdains to cite the contributions of interest made by certain researchers; or who, by not subjecting the results obtained to sufficient critical discussion, publishes unsubstantiated conclusions, or takes as confirmed what is mere speculation.

Throughout the activity professor, truthfulness must be a constant in the academic attention and staff with the students. A conscientious preparation of the classes must make possible a true and updated teaching . It would be intolerable, all the more so given the authority enjoyed by the teacher, to intentionally distort the truth in explanations in favour of a scientific, political or any other staff opinion subject. One must not be untruthful with anyone, and one must have the courage and simplicity to recognise one's own error rather than to hide, out of false prestige, in the defence of a mistaken assertion, or a confusion committed. Nor is it permissible, in order not to appear ignorant, to answer a question in a way that could lead to error. Nor is it correct to hide the most direct bibliographical sources of the explanations of class, giving in their place other less adequate ones.

Lying: If truthfulness means expressing oneself in accordance with one's inner thoughts, lying means expressing oneself in a way that is contrary to one's own thoughts. Lying is a locution against one's own mind, spoken advisedly, with the intention of making the listener think that what the liar knows to be false is true, that is to say, with the intention of deception.

A distinction is sometimes made between the expression of an error as a material lie, when the person who says it thinks that it is true; and as a formal lie, the telling others as true something that one believes to be false. Strictly speaking, a material lie is not ethically a lie, although one can -involuntarily- induce one's own error.

Lying is intrinsically evil, it is never lawful, it is always against the right moral order, as is easy to understand.

Oral or written language, like the equivalent expressive gestures, is a means of communicating one's thoughts, an instrument of openness of spirit, which by its very nature demands that words should be in accordance with what is truly thought, a vehicle of truth and not of deception. To lie means to betray the function of the word, to violate the natural order of things, to go against the dignity of the human person and of others. It is an aberration that language, man's attribute for conveying his thoughts and feelings, for serving the truth, should be used to engender deception, to provoke error, to harm his fellow man in his interest in knowing the truth. It is in man's nature to speak the truth.

Man is a sociable being, he usually lives in society, he relates to many others in a complex of interactions involving reciprocal services and demands. Social coexistence is only possible if it is based on mutual trust, on the truthfulness of each other. Whoever possesses the truth must not alter, distort or falsify it, for the sake of the social good of humanity. The use of lies in relations between people destroys the necessary trust, generates suspicion, and makes cooperation, the organisation of society and human existence itself impossible.

The truth is superior to the interests of the individual; no one has the right to dispose of it at will, to manipulate it or to distort it. No purpose can justify lying; using lies as a dialectical weapon, or to provoke a particular reaction, or simply to deceive, is always execrable, it can never be justified. Moreover, those who become accustomed to lying end up losing their moral conscience, provoking a rupture in their own personality, to the point that it often leads to neuroses that are difficult to overcome.

Other forms of untruthfulness

Simulation is pretending by actions to do something other than what is actually being done, and is therefore a form of lying. For example, a person pretends to be working only when he feels that he is being watched, or pretends to be paying attention when in fact he is thinking about other things.

Hypocrisy is also contrary to sincerity and frankness. It consists in pretending to be what one really is not, as one who pretends to appreciate another, when in truth he hates him, or one who outwardly sample is jealous of just and honest conduct, when in fact he is unjust and fraudulent.

Boasting also contradicts truthfulness by attributing to oneself qualities of excellence above what one actually possesses; boasting, for example, of having knowledge and capabilities superior to one's real ones.

Cheating in the many forms of fraud, swindling, cheating, etc., falsification of documents, and other similar actions are also various forms of lying.

Truthfulness is also compromised when the truth of the facts is intentionally adulterated; when certain aspects are kept in silence while others are emphasised, in such a way as to induce a false idea of a status or conduct; when what is only a suspicion, little or not at all founded, is spread as highly probable.

Licitness of concealment of the truth: As stated above in the discussion of truthfulness in relation to prudence, there are circumstances in which telling the truth may produce harm, and others in which one has a perfect right, or even obligation, to reserve one's own thoughts.

In all these cases, the truth can or should be concealed, but not lied about. There are many ways to achieve this, such as simple silence, evasiveness, outright refusal to answer, or expressions that everyone understands to mean that you do not have the right to know what you are asking, or polite expressions that show that you do not consider it appropriate to agree to what you are asking.

d) Communicating the truth

Apart from those cases in which it is lawful or obligatory to conceal it, truth is a good to be spread. This is particularly true of the acquisition of knowledge that can be of benefit to others.

The possession of a truth, in fact, always means more light in the understanding and a good for the person, and it is reasonable to wish to share in this good possessed, to wish to extend to others the inner joy that this finding provides. To this must be added the duty born of an elementary sense of solidarity with other men, of human fraternity. Making the truth known is thus, in many cases, a duty.

Spreading or transmitting the truth is not the same as trying to impose it, pretending that it should be accepted without further ado, demanding from others, simply by its manifestation, the Degree of certainty that one has reached about it oneself. It consists rather in exposing it to the contemplation of others, with due justification, so that it can be grasped with certainty. It is not a matter of imposing a conclusion, but of bringing about a common conviction, a free acceptance.

This is the way to proceed with the results of scientific research ; one should report them and submit them for examination and discussion in various academic forums and in specialised publications, honestly providing all the necessary data so that others can reproduce what one has done oneself. In this way, greater criticality is achieved in interpretations and a contribution is made to the development of Science. We are all beneficiaries of the knowledge achieved by others, so it is only fair that what one has managed to discover should be given to the service of society, to the progress of human knowledge. This is not opposed to the legitimate right to intellectual property, nor to the right to patent when it is something that can bring economic benefits.

All the activity professor, on the other hand, is the dissemination of truth, it is to ensure that the student contemplates and accepts the truths that are presented or, even, to help him to discover them himself. It is necessary to be as truthful as possible and to deploy the best didactics in order to obtain a fruitful transmission of knowledge through the tasks of teaching.

The dissemination of truth becomes all the more necessary a duty the more good it can produce for man, and in this sense the goods of the spirit are more valuable than merely material ones. For this reason, it is understandable how important it is to make known the most transcendent truths, on which the foundations of social coexistence and man's eternal destiny depend, such as the truths which derive from the dignity of the human person and the religious truth which concerns man's relationship with the Creator. Spreading these luminous and saving truths does not imply fanaticism: on the contrary, it constitutes a generous offering of what is known to cause good, put into practice not by violent or intolerant obstinacy, but by their progressive declaration and illumination until they can be freely accepted.