Truthfulness without Truth

What is the relationship between the value of sincerity and the value of truth? You might assume that the value of sincerity and the value of truth (more exactly: true belief) are part of an evaluative package, such that they stand or fall together. In this spirit, Bernard Williams (2002) offers an account of the “virtues of truth,” which include sincerity and accuracy. My goal in this paper is to undermine the assumption that the value of sincerity is tied to the value of truth. To this end, I’ll criticize the view that the badness of lying is explained by the badness of false belief (§2), and articulate and defend an alternative account, which appeals to the badness of false promising (§3). On my view, the value of truth is orthogonal to the badness of lying