Joseph Ellin's Definition of Lying

"We may consider a lie to be a statement which the speaker believes to be false."

"What I call a deception [roughly Lee's "trickery"], on the other hand, consists either [(1)] in true statements which are nonetheless misleading, or [(2)] in actions which convey a false impression, or [(3)] in the deliberate withholding of information where the person not informed is misled into drawing a false conclusion. Deception can be inadvertent, but where it is deliberate, the agent must want someone to draw a false conclusion."

"Two important conceptual questions . . . are whether the statement made by the liar must be false, or whether it is enough for the liar to believe it is false; and whether the liar must tell the lie with the intent to deceive the hearer."

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Richard Lee,