Honesty is the human quality of communicating and acting truthfully,
in accordance with a sense of fairness and sincerity. This includes all
varieties of communication, both verbal and non-verbal. Honesty implies
a lack of deceit. A statement can be strictly true and still be
dishonest if the intention of the statement is to deceive its audience.
Similarly, a falsehood can be spoken honestly if the speaker actually
believes it to be true.
Honesty can be displayed to others, and to oneself (see: self-deception).
Honesty is typically considered virtuous behavior, and has strong
positive connotations in most situations. A principal reason for this
may be that honesty simplifies communication, in that honest statements
can be trusted at face value, not necessarily as true, but as genuinely
believed. Additionally, honesty helps to form bonds of trust in human relationships.
Conversely, dishonesty can be defined simply as behavior that is performed with intent to deceive. Lying, lying by omission, fraud, and plagiarism are all examples of this sort of behavior.
While there are a great many moral systems, generally speaking,
honesty is considered moral and dishonesty is considered immoral. There
are several exceptions, such as hedonism, which values honesty only insofar as it improves ones own sense of pleasure, and moral nihilism,
which denies the existence of objective morality outright.
Additionally, even in moral systems which approve in general of honesty
over dishonesty, there are situations in which dishonesty may be
preferable. A common example is a "white lie," a lie which is told in a
situation where telling the truth would have served no purpose and
would have caused pain. While they are dishonest, the motivation behind
the deception is the avoidance of suffering, rather than personal gain
or the evasion of responsibility common in many other forms of
dishonesty, and so white lies often are viewed, if not as completely
moral, then at least less immoral than other types of lies.
in accordance with a sense of fairness and sincerity. This includes all
varieties of communication, both verbal and non-verbal. Honesty implies
a lack of deceit. A statement can be strictly true and still be
dishonest if the intention of the statement is to deceive its audience.
Similarly, a falsehood can be spoken honestly if the speaker actually
believes it to be true.
Honesty can be displayed to others, and to oneself (see: self-deception).
Honesty is typically considered virtuous behavior, and has strong
positive connotations in most situations. A principal reason for this
may be that honesty simplifies communication, in that honest statements
can be trusted at face value, not necessarily as true, but as genuinely
believed. Additionally, honesty helps to form bonds of trust in human relationships.
Conversely, dishonesty can be defined simply as behavior that is performed with intent to deceive. Lying, lying by omission, fraud, and plagiarism are all examples of this sort of behavior.
While there are a great many moral systems, generally speaking,
honesty is considered moral and dishonesty is considered immoral. There
are several exceptions, such as hedonism, which values honesty only insofar as it improves ones own sense of pleasure, and moral nihilism,
which denies the existence of objective morality outright.
Additionally, even in moral systems which approve in general of honesty
over dishonesty, there are situations in which dishonesty may be
preferable. A common example is a "white lie," a lie which is told in a
situation where telling the truth would have served no purpose and
would have caused pain. While they are dishonest, the motivation behind
the deception is the avoidance of suffering, rather than personal gain
or the evasion of responsibility common in many other forms of
dishonesty, and so white lies often are viewed, if not as completely
moral, then at least less immoral than other types of lies.