Truth In Henry Frankfurt's On Truth

In the Star Trek episode, the artificial life form Data meets someone who claims to be his mother. It is eventually revealed that the woman is in fact an android and not his real mother. Data finds out that the biological woman who raised him is dead, and the person Data met is an android replica of his mother who believes that she is human and not actually an android. After Data is aware of the situation, he has to make the decision whether to tell his mother the truth or keep it a secret. Henry Frankfurt, the author of On Truth, would have a valuable opinion about the situation Data is stuck in. On Truth by Henry Frankfurt is a short novel, which recognizes what is truth and its value. Frankfurt feels that it is more advantageous to face the facts with which we must deal than to remain ignorant of them. According to Frankfurt’s beliefs, the right thing Data should do is to tell his mother the truth. If Data tells his mother the truth, then her android self would shut and he would never be able to communicate with her again. Even though Data would miss seeing his mother, it would be a smart decision to face the facts that his mother is just an android and deal with the consequences. …show more content…
Both partners are aware of the lies and secrets that each of them are keeping, but they do not want to acknowledge the truth. Frankfurt points out that even know they are both unsuccessfully lying, this situation is okay because the other person sees right through the lie. Even though this situation is acceptable according to Frankfurt, he would disagree with Data’s decision. Data’s father is the one who created the whole lie and he designed the android so his wife could continue her life even though she is dead. Although his father was aware of the lie, the android was not, because the whole time she believed that she was