Integrity, Honesty, and Truth Seeking

Ask a child what qualities make for a good person, and she would likely say "telling the truth." Indeed, honesty is a character trait whose worth even children recognize, and a virtue crucial on both intimate and global scales, significant in everything from our relationships to ourpoliticians' accountability. The past forty years have witnessed a dramatic resurgence of philosophical interest in the virtues, understood as qualities that dispose one to think, feel, and act with excellence. And yet there has been surprisingly little work among philosophers aimed at helping usbetter understand the interwoven virtues of honesty, integrity, and truth-seeking.Edited by philosophers Christian B. Miller and Ryan West, this interdisciplinary volume significantly advances the discussion of this cluster of truth-related virtues by incorporating the insights and perspectives of experts in philosophy, law, communication and rhetorical studies, theology,psychology, history, and education. Each section is devoted to one virtue, and comprises a conceptual chapter about the nature of the virtue in question, an application chapter which explores how the virtue plays a central role in an area of human life, and a developmental chapter covering some ofthe ways people can foster this virtue in life. Additionally, the volume addresses honest and dishonest behavior, the fastest growing and most influential research areas in moral psychology today. Every reader will come away from this volume with deepened knowledge and appreciation for the essentialrole honesty takes in our world, and profound reason for developing and sustaining it in life.