I recently posed a puzzle about Kant's moral philosophy. The puzzle was this: if lying is always wrong, would it be wrong (according to Kant’s theory) to lie to a robot with speech technology who came to your door trying to locate innocent people who were hiding from a tyrannical government?

Many of you know by now that I’ve committed to presenting philosophical puzzles for the duration of the Corona crisis. This month's puzzle is somewhat sci-fi in nature, but not totally farfetched, as we’ll see. The motivating question is this: What should Kant say about lying to robots?

Around this time of year, many parents—God only knows how many—lie to their children about Santa Claus. But aren't we always trying to teach our children that lying is wrong? So shouldn't we stop lying about Santa?

You might think that Trump is an inveterate liar, whose lies disguise the truth in a way that causes favor among gullible constituents. But here’s an alternative hypothesis: Trump is bullshitting.