3. Original undertaking of a social contract

"Suppose we adopted a social contract point of view and postulated that the duty of veracity depends on an original undertaking not to deceive. A lie would then be a violation of this implicit agreement."

"[T]he promise to speak the truth is more important than the promise not to deceive, since speech is necessary to any human society, whereas non-deception is necessary only for a tolerable or decent society. Truth . . . is an enabling condition for society, whereas non-deception is but an enhancing condition."

"[T]here is a more explicit promise made every time we speak, so that to speak at all is virtually to warrant that our words are true. A lie would then amount to a violation of the very promise made by the speech act in which the lie is stated."