Lesson 4- Honesty

Do each of the following in order.

1. Read What is honesty

2. Read Lesson 4 Perspective

3. Do Readings

4. Answer Multiple Choice Questions

5. DO ASSESSMENT - RETURN to BbLearn and Do Assessment 4 attached to this Lesson.

Do Assessment 4

Ensure that you have completed the previous lesson and have received an email response from the instructor before completing this lesson assessment.
If you have not received a response from the previous lesson please email Brad Dieter at bradd@uidaho.edu.

What is Honesty?

Honesty can be defined as upright dealings with another person especially in the context of truth telling.  This truth telling can exist in three forms: lying, cheating, and stealing.  Lying is verbally and intentionally changing what we perceive to be truth.  Cheating is violating a promise.  That is, I promise to be faithful, or I promise to follow the rules.  Stealing is taking another=s property.  

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Lesson 4 Perspective:

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Readings:

Lying, cheating, and stealing is common practice today. More people violate the principle of honesty than all other moral principles. It seems that all of us have ways to rationalize our behaviors of lying, cheating, and stealing...and worse few people expect more of us.  In the last 10 years, stealing on the job has become a very large and real problem in corporate America – and stealing as attached to greed has brought down major investment houses on Wall Street. Many companies such as Boeing have huge losses from employees stealing all sorts of materials from pencils to wrenches.  The theft problem is not limited to the worker on the job taking a wrench; a large part of the theft comes from the office worker taking office supplies and then essentially loafing on the job. Workers steal from their employers by not putting in a full day=s work. They loaf at the water cooler or write personal notes on e‑mail. Interestingly, the news is full of violent crime, but more crime occurs in the workplace than ever occurs on the streets.

Lying is also so common place that most of us think little of telling lies. How often do we lie? Most of us tell one to two lies a day. The more active liars tell that many in an hour and maybe many more.

Ethicists tell us that we lie because we want something for ourselves. We lie because we want people to think we are bright, or charming, or special in some way. At the same time, we cheat because we want a better grade or a better experience, or we don=t want to hurt another=s feelings. Sometimes we cheat not for ourselves ‑or we think not for ourselves ‑ we cheat by helping others cheat. For example, your friend wants you to help her cheat on a test.  She won't pass unless she gets your help.  Would you help your friend cheat?

Unfortunately, this sort of cheating pulls at our heart strings. We want to help our friends, because they are our friends. If we analyzed why we do this, it is usually not because we want to help the friend. Rather it=s really about wanting our friend to like us or we don=t want our friend to be mad at us, or maybe it=s just easier to cheat than have an argument with the friend. It=s easier to go along than it is to refuse. For whatever reason, either wanting our friend to like us or avoiding a problem, we are really cheating.  Yes, we cheat the system and ourselves, and we are cheating our friend. If we truly cared about our friend, we would want her to be responsible and learn the material on her own.

Because I know how often people lie and cheat, I always wonder when I go to see my physician, that is, my doctor, whether she cheated her way through school. Recently, my father had open heart surgery; I wondered if his surgeon cheated in school. Comforting thought, isn't it?  When your life is in another person=s hands and their skill and knowledge is the key to your living, do you want to think that they cheated in school? Of course, you might argue that this is different; that you would not cheat on the important stuff. You would never cheat when it really counted

I teach in a college and my students tell me that they may cheat on some classes but they would never cheat in their major classes, because they are the important stuff. I always ask them, AHow do you know what is unimportant? Do you have a very special crystal ball that you dial up and it tells you what you need to know...a year from now, or 5 years, or 20 years? How do you know what you don=t know?@

Stealing, like cheating and lying, occurs often. Many of us would lie and cheat but, interestingly, would never steal. In fact, we would be indignant if anyone would ever think that we might steal...though we tell lies. The goal for us in this lesson is to try to be what we expect of others ‑ honest folks.   However, very good people often don't see how they actually steal – or take something that doesn't belong to them.  The devil is in the details; meaning that whatever one does should be done thoroughly; details are important. Stealing a service or  a product may seem to be standard fare; however, if you are not given the material to use as yours – or you are not the institution in yourself; or you represent yourself other than what you are … them a form of dishonestly occurs.  For example, let's suppose you are employed by A, but want to apply with B, and you send in a letter of inquiry on A's letterhead – in essence you are using A's resources to apply for a position with B.  Or you apply for a position with A, using the B's email system – you are in essence using the resources of A to get a job with B.  Both of these examples of stealing resources from one organization to better yourself to get a job with a competing company happen quite often – and many times hiring committees notice and refuse to move that candidates name forward to the next level.

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Assessment:

Return to Bblearn and Do Assessment for Lesson 4

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