Honesty Definition and Meaning or What Is It

Honesty is a value or quality of people closely related to the principles of truth, justice and moral integrity. An honest person is someone who always tries to get the truth out before their thoughts, expressions and actions. This quality is therefore not only related to the relationship of an individual with another or with others or with the world, but one can also say that a subject is honest with himself if he has a considerable self-awareness and if he is consistent with what he thinks.

. The opposite of honesty is injustice, a practice often rejected in contemporary societies because it is associated with hypocrisy, corruption, crime and lack of ethics.

Because of the history of philosophy, honesty has long been studied by various thinkers. Socrates, for example, has devoted himself to researching its meaning and researching what this property really is. Later, philosophers such as Emmanuel Kant try to compile a set of general ethical principles, including honest behavior.

Get quality help now

writer-Charlotte

Verified writer

Proficient in: Honesty

4.7 (348)

“ Amazing as always, gave her a week to finish a big assignment and came through way ahead of time. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Another philosopher, Confucius, distinguished different levels of honesty for his ethic: and, depending on their depth, he called them Li, Yi, and Ren. The question of whether honesty is an innate characteristic of the human being or the fruit of his interaction in society is a subject of debate. From the point of view of animal behavior, other vertebrates tend to focus on their individual condition and, to varying degrees, that of their offspring relative to that of their peers. In primates, however, this phenomenon is less 'individualistic' and reaches its climax in humans.

In this sense, honesty (as an ethical or moral quality in society) is also closely linked to sincerity, coherence, integrity, respect and dignity. But since human truth can never be absolute, honesty is also a subjective value, as it depends on the context and the actors. For this reason, it becomes very difficult to establish shared moral parameters from one society or culture to another, and even between groups or between individuals, these points of view can radically change. another is not. For example, in some cultures, the pillaging of other nations to promote the development of society itself is considered a fair matter; This factor is not clearly visible in other civilizations. Similarly, piracy is clearly an unfair act for most people, but it is perceived as a 'justified' attitude towards the misuse of the costs of books, music or computer programs. At the same time, many governments condemned the old maritime piracy as flight, while other countries saw it as a kind of strange heroism.

Moreover, in the different domains of a typical society, the concept of honesty is variable and more or less a priority. Honesty in science, for example, has priority, but in the political arena this concept is much more debatable. However, the contamination of honesty has reached different areas in which the conviction of this fact is very versatile and depends on the standards applied. Thus, even if plagiarism or fraud is demonstrated, an unfair event is rejected without hesitation by the entire scientific community, but unfortunately, this example is not often recognized by the power of the state.