May 17, 2009 3 min read

I have been searching for a definition or meaning of the word integrity. It is a word that is so overused or misunderstood, especially at this time of the year. According to the Encarta World English dictionary, integrity is the possession of firm principles: the quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards. It also says that integrity is the consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcomes. Some of the following understandings of the word integrity were found on Answers.com. It said integrity can be seen as the quality of having a sense of honesty and truthfulness in regard to the motivation for ones’ actions. The term “hypocrisy” is used in contrast to integrity for asserting that one part of a value system demonstrably conflicts with another, and to demand that the parties holding apparently conflicting values account for the discrepancy or change their beliefs to improve internal consistency.

Some discussions of integrity often see the concept as an all-or-nothing affair: one describes an approved person as “having integrity” (as an absolute), but condemns an enemy or a collective enemy organization as “completely lacking in integrity.” The ethical meaning of integrity used in the context of medicine or law refer to the wholesomeness of the human body with respect for “sacred” qualities such as a sense of unity, consistency, purity, unspoiledness and uncorrputedness.

Also in general discussions on behavior and morality, one view of the property of integrity sees it as the virtue of basing actions on an internally-consistent framework of principles. People of integrity treat their own endorsements as ones that matter, or ought to matter, to fellow deliberators. Lying about one’s views, recanting them under pressure, concealing them, selling them out for rewards or to avoid penalties, and pandering to what one regards as the bad views of others, all indicate a failure to regard one’s own judgment as one that should matter to others and also that one should have the proper respect for the judgment of others.

The single minded goal of approval is inconsistent with integrity. Integrity does not seem to be exclusively a matter of how people approach mainly moral concerns. Traits like friendship, honesty, worthiness and personal projects appear highly relevant to judgments of integrity. Another set of characteristics undermine integrity. Some of them are weaknesses of will, self deception, self-ignorance, self-arrogance, hypocrisy and indifference.

Any attempt to strive for integrity has to take into account the effect of social and political context. The kind of society which is likely to be more conducive of integrity is one which enables individuals to develop and make use of their capacity for critical reflections, and one which does not encourage individuals to betray each other to advance their careers.

Mary Machesky is a resident of Uniontown. She’s the wife of the late Ron Machesky.