If you don't know that you are wrong, are you lying?

No, it isn’t.

Lying implies that one is actually speaking or withholding what one knows to be true. But if I believe I am imparting a fact or the truth, I am not lying.

Usually no, but it can be if the person is being willfully ignorant and still hurtful.

It’s tricky, because it can be either simply misinformation, or it can be a lie to the person receiving the information. The person telling the info doesn’t feel they are lying at all. It’s all perspective.

It’s like promising to do something and not following through, and the person being promised to already had a pretty good guess that person would not do as promised. Is the promiser lying? If they truly in their mind want to and believe they will do their promise? They fool themselves.

If the person is truly ignorant of their not knowing, then it is not lying; however, many people realize that they may be wrong but refuse to admit to themselves that they don’t know all the facts. In place of researching the facts with an open mind, they dig in their heels and continue to spread the misinformation. Now that in itself is lying

There are two senses of that kind of lying.

One is “to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive”. The “with intent” part is required, so if this is what you mean when you ask this question, then no.

The other sense of that kind of lying is “to create a false or misleading impression”. If that is what you mean when you ask this question, then yes. But you don’t mean that, or else this would not even be a question.

Note that the second sense of the word “lie” is NOT a different standard for the same concept. It’s a different concept, which uses the same word.

q.v. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lie

No. You have to KNOW that you’re not telling the truth for it to be lie.
If you make some statement and you don’t know whether it’s true or not, then you are assuming, or speculating, and you should let the other person know that.

No, you are misinformed. Lying requires knowing you are misrepresenting the truth.

@Zaku, hmm, your second part of the answer makes me wonder though. Under what heading do people fall under if choose to not research something because the actual truth isn’t in their favor and they want to choose to believe the lie. Let’s take Covid deniers who rather believe the whole thing is a conspiracy because wearing masks is inconvenient and they don’t believe in vaccines.

Is untrue but honest.

@Pandora Well “people” isn’t something that “lie” applies to. A “lie” is said about specific behavior, not the person.

And of course:
* it’s possible to lie about not knowing better
* it’s possible to lie about not having seen information
* it’s common to lie to oneself
* it’s possible to put on an entire facade just for political reasons
* it’s possible to delude oneself and lie so much, that one doesn’t know what’s true or not
* it’s possible to not care what’s true or not, and just disagree to annoy people
* it’s possible to be so ignorant as to not think anyone has any better understanding
* it’s possible to just be really dumb, or mentally impaired
* it’s possible to compulsively lie, and lie about lying

It can be difficult (and sometimes pointless) to try to determine which combination of the above is going on, when someone’s continually not making sense. Wondering exactly what form of the word “lie” applies in each case, tends to be even less practical.

@Zaku But the moment you know there is another version of a story but choose not to reveal it, then that is a lie by omission. It doesn’t matter what the person chooses to believe.

If they have knowledge of other things that are more likely the truth but it isn’t convenient to their situation, then they are purposely misleading. Aka lying. Like Fox News. The anchors get away with saying crap because all they have to say, is I didn’t know all the facts, so they don’t get sued but they get to spin out lies.

@erebus9 I say yes they are lying. Just because it is unintentional doesn’t mean it is the truth. So if it is not true it is still a lie. What a person believes does not change the reality of it. So people can be unintentional in their lies but it’s still lying. Wishing, wanting, or willing something to be true doesn’t change it. The opposite of Truth will always be Lies. Not misinformed or misunderstood.

No, it is not lying. As @Zaku noted, there are different senses of the word “lie.” But lying in the way you are asking about requires an intent to deceive. While there is a colloquial/conversational use in which one might say, “oops, I lied!” or something similar when correcting a misstatement, that usage is also clearly non-literal.

@Pandora The opposite of truth is not lies, it is falsity. That’s why we take true or false tests, not true or lie tests. Lies, including lies of omission, are things that are meant to deceive. That’s one of the key features that distinguishes them from errors. Otherwise, phrases like “it was an honest mistake” would make no sense.

@CunningLinguist False synonyms. deceptive, delusive, delusory, distorted, fallacious, fictitious, illusory, misleading
amiss, askew, awry
deceitful, dishonest, fraudulent, lying, mendacious
unconfirmed, unproven, untested
fabricated, invented, made-up, trumped-up. So still a LIE or fictitious whether a person meant to mislead or not. Also why if you make an error statement people will say, I’m sorry, my mistake, it was a lie and then follow it up with the truth. You can believe in a lie and tell it like its the truth but it’s still a lie. By the way the OP question ask if you aren’t aware its a lie are you still lying. The answer is in the question. It makes no difference if you are aware or not. A lie is still a lie and if your are spreading that lie then yes you are lying. That is my point.

Ignorance is no excuse. We all have the ability and responsibility to learn and be informed before we open our mouths.
In some regards you are lying to yourself if you do not become informed on a topic before you speak.

I sometimes say the wrong answer without knowing it. When I do however I say I’m sorry and all is goo so it is not lying.

It depends on your insistence and your tone.
If you carry a tone of authority in order to have a “command effect” on others, that is basically lying, when you are wrong. You should reserve such authoritative tones for the times in life when you truly do know… that you know what you’re talking about.

No. Do you have a dictionary?