Honesty Concept

Honesty Concept

The honesty , the Latin term honestĭtas , is the quality of honest. Therefore, the word refers to one who is decent , decorous , demure , prudish , reasonable , fair , honest , straight or honest , as detailed dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) .

In other words, honesty constitutes a human quality that consists in behaving and expressing oneself with sincerity and coherence , respecting the values ​​of justice and truth .

Honesty can not be based on the desires of the people . Acting honestly requires an attachment to the truth that goes beyond intentions. A man can not act according to his own interests , for example by ignoring information, and being considered honest.

In particular we can determine that honesty is a human value that means that a person who has it not only respects himself but also the rest of his peers. Without forgetting other fundamental characteristics such as frankness and, of course, the truth.

All this leads to establishing that having such honesty is something essential in the nature of the human being because it becomes a key piece in all kinds of relationships. Thus, it is an axis in friendship, within the family, in the love relationship and in the same way in any kind of social relationship.

For any of these to work, it must exist in honesty and not falsehood, injustice or pretense. And it is that the value that occupies us what it does is to provide them with love, trust, love and absolute sincerity.

The Chinese philosopher Confucius ( 551 BC - 479 BC ) has distinguished between three levels of honesty . On a more superficial level (called Li ), it includes the actions that a person performs with the aim of fulfilling their own desires, both in the short and in the long term, but demonstrating sincerity.

A deeper level is the Yi , where the actor does not seek his own interest but the moral principle of justice, based on reciprocity.

Finally, the deepest level of honesty is the Ren , which requires prior self-understanding to understand others. This level implies that a man should treat those who are at a lower level of the social scale in the same way that he would like the superiors to treat him.

Among the most interesting books that currently exist in the market to further study the aforementioned value or quality is the one entitled "Radical Honesty. Transform your life by telling the truth. " In 2008 it was when the psychologist Brad Blanton published this work in which he tries to show the reader how the stress situation that can come at certain times is due to the lies he tells his boss, his friends or his family.

Therefore, he recommends that the way to end that is to bet on honesty, to be honest and say what you think and also what you feel.