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Honesty: The Philosophy and Psychology of a Neglected Virtue
Honesty is an important virtue. Parents want to develop it in their children. Close relationships depend upon it. Employers value it in their employees. Surprisingly, however, philosophers have said very little about the virtue of honesty over the past fifty years. In this book, Christian B.
Miller aims to draw much greater attention to this neglected virtue.
The first part of the book looks at the concept of honesty. It takes up questions such as: What does honesty involve? What are the motives of an honest person? How does practical wisdom relate to honesty? Miller explores what connects the many sides of honesty, including not lying, not stealing, not
breaking promises, not misleading others, and not cheating. He argues that the honest person reliably does not intentionally distort the facts as she takes them to be.
Miller then examines the empirical psychology of honesty. He takes up the question of whether most people are honest, dishonest, or somewhere in between. Drawing extensively on recent studies of cheating and lying, the model Miller articulates ultimately implies that most of us have a long way to go
to reach an honest character.
Honesty: The Philosophy and Psychology of a Neglected Virtue provides both a richer understanding of what our character looks like, as well as what the goal of being an honest person actually involves. Miller then leaves it up to us to decide if we want to take steps to shrink the character gap
between the two.
Miller aims to draw much greater attention to this neglected virtue.
The first part of the book looks at the concept of honesty. It takes up questions such as: What does honesty involve? What are the motives of an honest person? How does practical wisdom relate to honesty? Miller explores what connects the many sides of honesty, including not lying, not stealing, not
breaking promises, not misleading others, and not cheating. He argues that the honest person reliably does not intentionally distort the facts as she takes them to be.
Miller then examines the empirical psychology of honesty. He takes up the question of whether most people are honest, dishonest, or somewhere in between. Drawing extensively on recent studies of cheating and lying, the model Miller articulates ultimately implies that most of us have a long way to go
to reach an honest character.
Honesty: The Philosophy and Psychology of a Neglected Virtue provides both a richer understanding of what our character looks like, as well as what the goal of being an honest person actually involves. Miller then leaves it up to us to decide if we want to take steps to shrink the character gap
between the two.
330 pages, Hardcover
Published July 2, 2021
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79 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 15, 2022
This book is the hardest book I've read in at least 10 years. It's hard in that it is an academic evaluation of the virtue of honesty, and I am not conversant in that literature. I didn't read this book for class. I struggled to hold all the information together in my mind, which made for very very very slow reading.
I was never excited to pick up this book and read it. I had to generate massive amounts of motivation just to tackle the next page. But I stuck with it.
I'm not in anyway qualified to offer a review of this book as this is my first foray into academic writing regarding virtues of any kind.
With that said: I learned a ton.
Would I recommend this book for others? I don't know. I know of very few people with the wherewithal to tackle and finish such a book. You'll learn a lot...but it is a lot like work. This is no leisurely read.
I gave four stars because I learned a lot. I didn't give it five stars because it was so hard to motivate myself to read it. If academic reading on virtues is your jam, I'd give it five stars...but then again, maybe not...because I would know enough about virtues to offer salient critiques.
I'm better for having read this book, but I am so very glad to be done with it.
I was never excited to pick up this book and read it. I had to generate massive amounts of motivation just to tackle the next page. But I stuck with it.
I'm not in anyway qualified to offer a review of this book as this is my first foray into academic writing regarding virtues of any kind.
With that said: I learned a ton.
Would I recommend this book for others? I don't know. I know of very few people with the wherewithal to tackle and finish such a book. You'll learn a lot...but it is a lot like work. This is no leisurely read.
I gave four stars because I learned a lot. I didn't give it five stars because it was so hard to motivate myself to read it. If academic reading on virtues is your jam, I'd give it five stars...but then again, maybe not...because I would know enough about virtues to offer salient critiques.
I'm better for having read this book, but I am so very glad to be done with it.
November 23, 2024
My interest in the subject was fueled mostly by observation of everyday social rituals filled with insincerity. Small talk, schmoozing, networking, marketing, sales. How much honesty is in those areas of life? I won't even mention politics, it is too obvious of a candidate for an honesty audit. What about our close relationships: family, friends, coworkers. How often we acknowledge the normalized presence of dishonesty, in different degrees, for various reasons.
Reading this book didn't satiate my hunger fully to find out the truth about what's behind the mechanisms that people employ while being dishonest and why, I suppose I would need to read a different literature, likely more deeply psychologically leaning. But it did give some insight into it, e.g. by mentioning that people enjoy thinking of themselves as honest, and want others think of them as honest, which unfortunately sometimes may motivate them to commit dishonest actions just to save their perceived image, and then employ self-deception techniques to keep their internal image clean as well. Lots of dishonesty for a seemingly nice reason.
The book provided enough information about attempts of the scientific community and some early philosophers to define, categorize and measure honesty.
Measuring part was the most controversial for me, as statistics can be manipulated, experiments may not be essentially perfectly designed and often are not reproducable. Some experiments have intriguing results though, if considered legit, e.g. the dice roll cheating test for two people, when an honest partner was often found to be a less desirable companion because their honest behavior would lead to a smaller monetary benefit for the partner; along with free riding that seemed to be a pretty convenient strategy for many.
Also the positive effect of the moral reminders, mirrors, increased sense of free will on honesty is not surprising, but good to be emphasized.
I was glad to notice that the author is extremely careful with conclusions he derives from the practical data, trying to be objective and making emphasis on just exploring the neglected subject, but not claiming much. Conclusions he makes at the end of the book seem grounded and reasonable, as well as realistic based even on everyday life observations.
The most memorable elements of the book for me were: the ever evolving definition of honesty and the explanations of relatable concepts like hypocrisy, bulls*t, self-deception, practical wisdom.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is only honestly interested in pondering the subject, because it is quite a tough read.
Also, if I happened to distort the facts in this review, it was only unintentionally;)
Reading this book didn't satiate my hunger fully to find out the truth about what's behind the mechanisms that people employ while being dishonest and why, I suppose I would need to read a different literature, likely more deeply psychologically leaning. But it did give some insight into it, e.g. by mentioning that people enjoy thinking of themselves as honest, and want others think of them as honest, which unfortunately sometimes may motivate them to commit dishonest actions just to save their perceived image, and then employ self-deception techniques to keep their internal image clean as well. Lots of dishonesty for a seemingly nice reason.
The book provided enough information about attempts of the scientific community and some early philosophers to define, categorize and measure honesty.
Measuring part was the most controversial for me, as statistics can be manipulated, experiments may not be essentially perfectly designed and often are not reproducable. Some experiments have intriguing results though, if considered legit, e.g. the dice roll cheating test for two people, when an honest partner was often found to be a less desirable companion because their honest behavior would lead to a smaller monetary benefit for the partner; along with free riding that seemed to be a pretty convenient strategy for many.
Also the positive effect of the moral reminders, mirrors, increased sense of free will on honesty is not surprising, but good to be emphasized.
I was glad to notice that the author is extremely careful with conclusions he derives from the practical data, trying to be objective and making emphasis on just exploring the neglected subject, but not claiming much. Conclusions he makes at the end of the book seem grounded and reasonable, as well as realistic based even on everyday life observations.
The most memorable elements of the book for me were: the ever evolving definition of honesty and the explanations of relatable concepts like hypocrisy, bulls*t, self-deception, practical wisdom.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is only honestly interested in pondering the subject, because it is quite a tough read.
Also, if I happened to distort the facts in this review, it was only unintentionally;)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews