Nadia Urbinati argues that society, friendship and love all require a measure of hypocrisy - what she calls ‘virtuous hypocrisy’. The important thing is to understand when and within what limits hypocrisy can be justified, and to avoid it becoming systematic and leading to outright lying and deception. Urbinati does not praise hypocrisy unconditionally but argues that a degree of hypocrisy is essential to the smooth functioning of our social and political life.