partial truth

you hear it in the business world most of the time i guess. apparent from the title of this post, of course i’m talking about the idea of partial truth. is partial truth ethical or right? i’ve discussed this topic with couple of my friends over though not all the time regarding the business world. we somehow would also expand this topic to our daily basis. so i shall attempt to iron things out on this topic in this post. whether you agree or not doesn’t really matter to me for i know such a topic draws countless viewpoints anyway.

before going into the details, i shall state my interpretation of the term first. the term “partial” here signifies incompleteness but not a lie or a white lie, for the matter. it means that the entire story or the truth isn’t revealed. well, “truth” here is pretty straightforward. i’m sure my definition of it is the same as you and the dictionary. 

moving on, i think giving partial truth is nothing wrong. nothing wrong doesn’t mean completely alright but i’ll go on to the exceptions later. how is it not wrong? well, personally i think it as something similar to giving certain information. like for example, if you are telling a story or an event that happen to a friend, you might leave out certain details and points. likewise, partial truth is like telling the truth but not highlighting every single small detail and what not. partial truth is not wrong for it isn’t a lie. okay, at least partial truth from me isn’t, just like how i mentioned about my interpretation in the previous paragraph. every person has every right to choose what he want to say.

with that being sad, how so can partial truth be not entirely alright? it isn’t completely right when you know that the person you are giving the partial actually deserves the entire truth. in a very worst case of example, say a family member of your friend went to heaven after being wheeled to hospital hours earlier but you told that friend to the point of the hospital part and not the death. well, this is where it isn’t completely right. technically,, you aren’t at fault as well. you did not lie nor did you use lies to cover up the truth and what not. however, it is obvious that your sad friend deserves to know the entire truth, though it might hurt him big time. another aspect in which partial truth is not completely alright is when you start to use white or harmless lies to cover the partial part. well, to me this is somewhat deviating from the term already since i mentioned earlier giving partial truth involves no lies, harmful or harmless ones.

so, back to me, real personally. i will not deny the fact that i do give partial truth now and then. when i do, i do by my beliefs as well.. no lies and cover ups. however, if the recipient is smart enough to know i am hiding some part and insist on me telling, i would tell though with much unwillingness depending on the truth itself. yeah.. so now you know.