I want to offer two areas of language use for your consideration: lying and humbug, the latter being a synonym for the concept more typically expressed in American slang with barnyard metaphor relating to bovine excrement. I trust that your vocabulary will allow you to decipher my circumlocution.
It is considered lying when I know that the amount of money in my pocket is $22.45, yet I tell you I have no money. It is considered humbug when I tell you that Sally has put your check in the mail, yet I have no knowledge of whether or not she has done so. According to Princeton professor emeritus of philosophy Harry Frankfurt, "It is just this lack of connection to a concern with truth - this indifference to how things really are - that I regard as the essence of [humbug]."
What is the role of lying and what is the role of humbug in gaining or offering knowledge? What issues regarding truth are you led to consider by exploring these two distinct uses of language?
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