a. Choose one of the examples Carter provides. Do you agree with Carter's reasoning?
After reading Stephen L. Carter reasoning as to why honesty, or a form of honesty, could not be viewed as integrity, all I could say was...wow. That was a lot of info to take in and surprisingly enough, it did make a lot of sense. I never really thought of how people could have many different definitions to what integrity means. Based off the essay, I guess the number one thing that most people say is that honesty plays a huge role. Carter on the other hand disagreed in many ways in which he had given us many examples to go off of as to why he thinks that way and is one of the reasons as to why I chose to answer the first question.
One of the examples that Carter used was about telling everything that you know, which is a form of honesty. He supported his beliefs by giving us a scenario that involved a man basically on his death bed confessing to his wife that he had been dishonest to her and had cheated on her with another person 35 years earlier. This was a marriage that had lasted 50 years in which the wife may have thought were all wonderful years until of course she heard this news. The man's conscience was finally in peace before he died but what about his wife? Carter stated that the wife could of course forgive him but she will now not have anything that she could cherish during the 50 years that they were "happily" married.
I feel that this was a great example to show that although the man was honest with his wife late in life, it basically caused pain for his wife. Carter used this example to show that although someone will be telling the truth, it can be at the expense of someone else getting hurt. Integrity is not about hurting people but it's more for looking out for people. I do have to agree with Carter's reasoning with this as I never really looked at it this way until I read this example out of many examples given, this one really stood out the most to me. Only because many people out there say like it is but its causing pain in others while it's benefiting themselves which is not what integrity is all about.
Jaime,
ReplyDeleteThe story about the man being unfaithful to his wife stood out to me also. It was a great example! I couldn't have explained it any better if I was to tell a story in regards of honesty and integrity. It would be so devastating to have to hear something like that.. to image watching someone you love and believed was faithful and commited to the relastionship is about to die, and then having to hear that the one you love was unfaithful to you and broke the commitment when the damage was done, and to find out right before your lover dies. I mean do you feel sad, angry, or just a bunch of other mixed feelings you can't explain?. In similar situations like this, it really makes it hard for us whether we are the person telling, or the victim.
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ReplyDeleteJaime,
ReplyDeleteI also chose to write about this example in my response. It really stood out to me. The husband may have been honest in the end, but I feel that he probably caused his wife more harm than he would have if he had told her when it had happened 35 years ago. I also agree with Carter that integrity is not about causing other people pain to benefit yourself. I believe that at the point that the husband was on his death bed, he probably should not have told his wife about the affair. He may have ended up with that on his conscience as he passed away, but at least he would not have harmed the image of him that his wife would have had as a faithful and loving man
Hello Jaime!
ReplyDeleteI liked the way you explained the difference between being an honest person and having integrity. I believe this is the most common mistake that people make when thinking about integrity. They need to understand that integrity is a more complex process and it involves many steps. I remember from the essay “The Ways we Lie” that sometimes being honest can be a bad and we can end up causing more damage by saying the truth. There are many times where people are required to lie in order to benefit themselves or someone else.This is going to affect their honesty, but it may make the person gain integrity.