Honesty

Honesty is a quality that can be shown in statements, actions, and persons. An honest statement is one that deliberately reveals a truth; for example, George Washington's admission that he cut down the cherry tree was an honest statement. An honest action is one that adheres to the trust conditions within a relationship; for example, Abe Lincoln was honest when he walked miles to return a few pennies. An honest person is one who regularly makes honest statements and performs honest actions.

Typically, honesty is only attributed where the speaker or actor might have been motivated to do otherwise. Thus, a man is seldom credited with honesty for shouting “Bingo!” in the church basement, even if he has a winning card. The term is used instead to honor those true statements that are made at the risk of loss, because that is when truth-telling is challenged. This is equally true for honest actions. A cashier will not regard a man's action particularly honest if he takes $20 from the tip jar because he was short changed. On the other hand, should he set $20 on the counter because he was given too much change, the cashier would justifiably regard this an honest action.

Honesty is deeply rooted in fellowship, such as marriage, friendship, and group affiliation, and facilitates two fundamental human needs: (1) the practical need to participate in equitable productive units (e.g., the family, which produces a home, an income, children, and so forth) and (2) the need for a sense of mutual belonging with others. Dishonesty in such relationships can wreck both of these human expectations. Marital infidelity, as a dishonest act, for example, destroys the felt sense of mutual belonging and often leads to the destruction of the economic structure as well.

Where groups increase in complexity and fellowship diminishes, such as in the movement from community to society, competitive and adversarial forces become a common feature of the interactive fabric; consequently, the collective exists in a form of cooperative competition in which honesty is an occasional and strategic resource. The communitarian vision of Amitai Etzioni, the civil religion of Robert Bellah and his student Jeffrey Alexander, and the discursive rationality of Jurgen Habermas can all be understood as modest proposals for an alternative social order, grounded in honesty, communitarian rationality, and integrity.