Falsity

Further information: Truth

Falsity (from Latin falsitas) or falsehood is a perversion of truth originating in the deceitfulness of one party, and culminating in the damage of another party. Falsity is also a measure of the quality or extent of the falseness of something, while a falsehood may also mean simply an incorrect (false) statement, independent of any intention to deceive.

In the Frege-Church ontology, "truth" is the denotation of a true proposition, while "falsity" is the denotation of false propositions.

In esthetics, falsity is ugly, and truth is beautiful.

In existentialism, falsity is usually a thing to be avoided, and is not desired.

Examples

• Counterfeiting money, or attempting to coin genuine legal tender without due authorization;
• tampering with wills, codicils, or such-like legal instruments;
• prying into the correspondence of others to their prejudice;
• using false weights and measures,
• adulterating merchandise, so as to render saleable what purchasers would otherwise never buy, or so as to derive larger profits from goods otherwise marketable only at lower figures;
• bribing judges,
• suborning witnesses;
• advancing false testimony;
• manufacturing spurious seals;
• forging signatures;
• padding accounts;
• interpolating the texts of legal enactments; and
• sharing in the pretended birth of supposititious offspring

are among the chief forms which this crime assumes.

See also

• Deception
• Fraud
• Lie

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia "Falsity"

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.