d desires. While Ryan notes that we cannot always base our decisions whether to tell the truth or not on other people's feelings, he suggests that we can base our decision on the other person's right to be told the truth. He notes, for example, the cases of the would-be murderer who demands to know where the fugitives are hidden (Ryan 736). Should the teller reveal the fugitives under the bed? Ryan suggests no. He argues that the would-be murderer has given up his right to the truth because he has broken - or surely intends to break - the rules of a moral society. He, therefore, has no moral right to the truth (Ryan 736).
Ryan refers to this relationship to the truth as "autonomy" (Ryan 737). In other words, each person has an autonomous right to tell the truth and to be told the truth. Liars, therefore, manipulate their right to tell the truth and so invade on their subjects' right to be told the truth. In so doing, liars abrogate their own right to be told the truth, and consequently their subjects' right to tell the truth to them. Thus, Ryan notes that there are some cases where people even have a "duty to lie well, that i
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