This article contributes to the development of the sociology of lying by exploring some of the earliest comments on the topic, which are to be found amongst Georg Simmel’s writings about secrecy. We outline Simmel’s broader approach to interaction, as an experience that is conditioned upon non-knowledge, and work towards the attribution to him of the discovery of an aesthetic of concealment and revelation. This, we argue, can be used as a founding block in the sociology of lying. We then examine what Simmel has to say about lying specifically and find he falls into contradiction as he tries to link lying to other social forms, such as love, and to the shifting patterns of life which he understood to define modernity. To refine his approach, we look back to the period of early modernity during which questions of self-revelation and concealment are being explored in literature and lived uncertainly. Specifically, we take a detailed look at William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 138, for it clearly articulates the complex, relational dynamics of lying and love and allows us to read this back into Simmel’s account and explain why he falls into confusion. We then conclude by posing a series of questions and taking the position that sociologists should study lying as a relational phenomenon.

本文通过探索关于该主题的一些最早评论，为说谎社会的发展做出了贡献，这些评论可在Georg Simmel的有关保密的著作中找到。我们将Simmel的广泛互动方式概述为一种以非知识为条件的体验，并努力将隐藏和启示的美学发现归因于Simmel。我们认为，这可以作为说谎社会学的基础。然后，我们研究了Simmel关于具体撒谎的说法，发现他在试图将撒谎与其他社会形式（例如爱）以及他理解为定义现代性的不断变化的生活方式联系起来时陷入了矛盾。为了改善他的方法，我们回顾一下早期的现代性时期，在这段时期中，关于自我揭示和隐藏的问题在文学中得到了探讨，并且生活不确定。具体来说，我们将详细介绍威廉·莎士比亚的《十四行诗》，因为它清楚地表达了撒谎和爱的复杂关系，并让我们将其读回到西梅尔的叙述中，并解释了为什么他陷入混乱。然后，我们提出了一系列问题，并采取了社会学家应将说谎作为一种相关现象进行研究的立场，从而得出结论。