The Insufficiency Of Honesty

Integrity is highly thought to be just another way to describe the word “honesty”, possibly because the word itself may not live up to its meaning without the action of being honest. According to Carter, “one cannot have integrity without being honest, but one can certainly be honest and yet have little integrity”. I agree with this statement because in order to be someone with high integrity, you must not only be honest but you must do what is considered right. Because you may be an honest person, you still must know from right and wrong to have integrity. Yes, it is that you must trust your instinct to the fairness and righteousness, regardless how you feel about your own beliefs. You can be an honest person, especially about your feelings towards something and be committed to your beliefs, but the question is if the action being committed is considered right, fair, and true.  

I have seen many people who have valued the thought of being honest most of the time whether it does any good or harm, as long as they didn’t carry a burden or guilt for lying. However, they sometimes fail to remember if being honest is right. Sometimes people don’t need to tell everything, or disclose information any more than they should. They forget about sparing feelings, even if it was not intentionally, especially if it has to do with responsibilities. 
     For example, you were in class taking a test, and your friend copies off your answers, you know it’s wrong and you studied all night to prepare for this test while your friend didn’t and he will receive as good of a credit for it as you, except without the hard studying. At the end of the class, you tell your teacher that your friend had copied off your test because you knew it was being honest and the right thing to do, but your friend gets in trouble for it, and to top it off this person probably doesn’t want to talk to you anymore. The other option could have been to tell your friend ahead of time prior to taking the test that you are not okay with it. It would save having to tell the teacher about your friend.

I always believed that anybody who often shows trustworthiness and integrity is thought to be a respectable character. They are known to give good answers, be fair, and make right decisions; someone you can rely on for honesty. I do not doubt that it is hard work, I’m sure it is. It just takes a lot of consideration to have correct moral judgment. Benefits of integrity is that it gives the feeling to be satisfied for having done something right, become a good inspirations to others, and gain trust and respect. The consequences of integrity is that you can get into trouble or be punished for it, loose other people’s trust and respect, or feel guilty for getting other people in trouble. In other words, you win some, you lose some.