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Truth
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because of differences in the social set-up. Though it is the most abstract principle, it furnishes the ground of the most concrete tenets of morality. Its validity and universality can be realized as a basic principle of life. If, for example, someone is asked to choose, as a practical principle of life, one of the two principles of truth and falsehood and he selects the principle of 'falsehood' he is always free to tell lies. But, at least, once he will have to assure others that he has chosen the principle of falsehood, and in this sense, he will have to take resort to the principle of truth at least once. Hence the importance of the principle of truth in practical life.
But in practice, however, the principle of truth is given a general relaxation, that is only because of its abstract nature, Political laws are quite emphatic on the maintenance of non-stealing and non-violence at least for mankind, but there is no such stringency against the violation of the principle of truth as such. Though it is expected in the court of law that one should 'speak only the truth and nothing but the truth', if it is confirmed that one had told a lie with regard to some 'offence', he will be punished only for that particular offence but not for the violation of the principle of truth as such or of the oath of speaking the truth and nothing but the truth, and no punishment as such is available for the violation of the principle of truth itself. It has therefore become a recognised vice. A scholar writing on the ethics of conformity says "the student of history sees that hypocrisy and insincere conformity have always been the besetting vices of the religion, and a grave drawback to their moralizing influence, just as lying is the recognised vice of the diplomats, chicanery of lawyers and solemn quackery of physicians." The reason for this lies in two things : Firstly, the nature of the precept, as has already been seen, is very abstract as compared with other precepts, its violation does not lead to such drastic results as the violation of other precepts may do, and for
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