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imagine a man sitting in a theater, watching a film whose central ideas he recognizes to be contrary to his best self-interest. Would it be wise for the man to immediately declare his realization to the rest of the audience? Of course not. The man can recognize all the failings of the film and genuinely seek to act in a manner otherwise than as the film suggestswithout ever speaking a word about it to anyone. If he does talk about the film to everyone in the audience while the film is playing, the man would in fact be committing a dishonest act; he would be engaged in self-deception concerning his genuine self-interestwhich does not include being expelled from the theater.

A rationally selfish individual does not see himself as possessing an inherent responsibility to other peopleunless that responsibility was consensually entered into in the form of a promise, contract, or agreement. Thus, he is not obligated to give all other people the truth about himself, his thoughts, or his understanding of reality; he can choose to do so only if it serves his best self-interest. This lack of obligation does not give him license to mislead other people or to give them deliberate falsehoods, however. He has three options whenever he interacts with another person: stating the whole truth, stating part of the truth, or silence.

Sometimes stating the whole truth or a part of it to other people will anger or offend those people so that they react in a manner harmful to the truthful individual. The honest man is under no obligation to speak in such circumstances, and silence is a superior option. However, in some situations even silence is detrimental. If a robber-murderer asks an individual where his family is hiding, the individual would not only betray the people he values by telling the truth; the individual is morally obligated to mislead the robber-murderer in order to save his family. After all, if the individual were to stay silent, the robber-murderer might kill him for being uncooperative. Misleading the robber-murderer might send him off on a futile search and buy the man and his family time to escape or organize retaliation.

Thus, when communicating with other people, the honest man will use the following set of principles:

1) When it benefits or does not harm him, he will tell all or part of the truth.

2) When it harms him to tell all or part of the truth, he will stay silent.

3) Only when it harms him to either tell the truth or to stay silent, he will tell a falsehood.

The

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