if i tell you I'm a liar, would you take it as the truth or a lie?

Question

if you take it as the truth then it would mean i'm not a liar because i just told the truth. but then i just lied by telling you im a liar....? if its taken as a lie then i'm not a liar because i just told the truth...that i'm a liar?
(thanks for taking the time to think about this.....actually, i'm a lawyer....
lawyer... liar....sounds and mean the same?)

Answer 1

i'll humor you.
either way you just wanted feedback

Answer 2

Besides you actually being a lawyer, which has no bearing on the actual question you asked, if you said you were a liar and are indeed are a liar then you would be telling the truth so in that instance you aren't a liar. However if you are a liar then saying you're a liar means you actually tell the truth.

Answer 3

I wouldn't try to "take it" as the truth or a lie. I would just accept the fact that you are a liar. Regardless of how you conveyed that information to me, you would still be a liar: you told the truth by admitting you were a liar OR you proved you were a liar by lying about whether you were a liar or not. A liar is a liar.

Lawyer and liar may sound the same but they aren't synonymous, at least in my opinion.

Answer 4

You are asking us to decide if it be a lie or the truth that you have just proclaimed yourself a liar.......

LOL first check against credability. I'll tell you how I would deal with it. Starting with the initial claim of intential bragging that you are a liar - If it were my call, I'd throw your butt in jail for a few days or more for being so arrogant. Who really cares if your lying or telling the truth at that point....who would want to go any further than your statement? By choice you make the statement then by choice you own the statement and the concequences as a result of what telling the truth...moreso bragging about being a liar.

Answer 5

Hello lawyer... nice to meet you here. How are you today?
Lawyer... liar....sounds and means the same-. Yes true.
That's what lawyers do, to lie all the time to defend and save their clients.
But if you tell me you are a liar... I take it as a truth of yourself, because your job really requires you to tell lies and falsities to others for some particular purposes... But on the other hand, I don't believe that you are a true liar. Because apart from your job, you are a normal human being like me and others who always seek for the truth and honesty...
.

Answer 6

I would take it as the truth because if you lied about it then you would be truthful but you aren't if you lied about being a liar so it would have to be the truth. Also, even a liar can tell the truth sometimes. So you are a liar and you did tell the truth.

Answer 7

This is a tired old conundrum. It requires careful analysis to put it away forever. I shall henceforth wihtin attempt to do so.
TOWIT:
Since you ask, I would say that I take your statement as as true
on its face, because any admission against self-interest has a greater reliability that self-serving statements. (it stands as an exception to hearsay rule)
Were you to say "I am not a liar" , I might suspect it is a lie and that would NOT be a conundrum. That is because it is a self-serving statement and more likely to be a lie. Further, if it is, it proves itself.

The obverse statement that you propound, if true, seems to contradict itself logically. But logical validity and truth are not necessarily concommitant. You do not specify that you always lie 100% of the time and it is unreasonable to conclude that anyone lies 100% of the time. It is practically impossible.

So I may rationally and reasonably base my conclusion on this observance of human nature and decide that ,in this instance, you are not lying, although you have admitted to being a liar, at least on some occasions.

But aren't we all liars at times. So to be a liar is not unusual or profound. It is ordinary and normal to lie. But perhaps more honest than usual to admit it.

CONCLUSION: So I would say you are more than usually honest and on this occasion the statement you make is true, because of this obvious honest streak and the above fact that statements against self-interest are very reliable.

Therefore I take your statement as truth



Incidentally, I too am an attorney, albeit retired, and enjoyed this exercise immensely. My grey matter needs to be refreshed and that is one reason I engage in this "Answers" thing.

PS
When you specify that you are an absolute liar, the conundrum deepens in difficulty. Thanks for giving the easier example.

Answer 8

I'd believe you. Even liars tell the truth.. Even honest people have moments of weakness.

But a person would lie (in a vast majority of cases) only if he stands to gain anything. Calling yourself a liar (in the vast majority of cases) does not benefit you... thus it is more unlikely that you are now telling a lie.. and so, you are in fact a liar. (That is, I would take your statement as the truth).

Answer 9

A liar can make a statement of truth. It is his cumulative statement of untruths that makes him a liar.

A lie must be based in some form of reality, otherwise it will not be persuasive. I would believe you are a liar if you told me you were. Even liars want the truth known.

Answer 10

Uh, don't confuse yourself here. A liar is capable of telling the truth. Just because they may happen to lie often does not mean they must always lie. Given that lawyers revel in technicalities too complex/cumbersome for easy comprehension (job security, anyone?) I would have thought that an obvious conclusion.

Answer 11

Truthfully (!), all people are liars, to some extent. Sometimes meaning to lie, sometimes because of ignorance. Sometimes, I write fiction, and that is a lie premised on a truth, because there's an old saying, "truth is stranger than fiction." But sometimes it takes fiction to clarify the truth. But, yes, all are liars. What we really need to know is the extent to which they will fabricate, in a given situation.