Selfless assertions

There are three central components to the phenomenon of selfless assertion: first, a subject, for purely non-epistemic reasons, does not believe that p; second, despite this lack of belief, the subject is aware that p is very well supported by all of the available evidence; and, third, because of this, the subject asserts that p without believing that p. In this piece, it is argued that selfless assertion sheds crucial light on how to understand the nature of lying. In particular, it is shown that only accounts of lying that secure a connection with deception deliver the correct verdict that cases of selfless assertion are importantly different from lies.