Hello from my upstairs office,
When I was younger, while I did not frequently lie about things, there were times I probably stretched the truth to some degree. Most times it was because I feared a spanking, which my mother was particularly adept at administering. There were times I perhaps revised the facts because I felt stupid or was embarrassed. There were times when I was simply afraid of the consequence. Somehow, in my less-than-astute thought process, I believed whatever story I concocted made sense. Of course, that was because my ability to see the larger picture, to connect the dots, was pretty limited. What is it that causes one to lie? What is it that makes such a process or action seem preferable to merely telling the truth and facing the consequences for our actions?
When I was researching for my comprehensive exams, as well as working toward a dissertation, focusing on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian and pastor involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler, required me to consider the reality of lying or the keeping of secrets. Sisela Bok, the Swedish-American philosopher and ethicist, has written two books, which were on my required reading list, one titled Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life, and the second, Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation. I think at the moment is it would be a good thing to revisit both books. It is alarming to me how societally we seem to be comfortable with dishonesty, either through lying and in keeping secrets. In the past few days the firestorm that has erupted because of the secrecy behind what happened (when or as it happened) about the Secretary of Defense is an incredible example. While I am not taking sides on this issue, what about the right to privacy? As more and more things come out, it is apparent there are issues. Words like honesty or transparency are tossed around somewhat haphazardly, but with important consequence. Certainly the political climate of our country and the disarray of how our elected officials seem hellbent on pointing fingers about everything does not bode well for where we are headed.
In one of my classes, while having a conversation about ethics and how ethics function, I asked a class (and these were students I respected for their intelligence and ability pretty much across each member of the class) how many of them had cheated on an assignment while in college. Every single student raised their hand (I guess I should commend that honesty), which stunned me. Then I followed up, how many of you have cheated more than once? Again, every single student raised their hand. As I worked to not pick my jaw up off the ground, I asked why? And the first student to answer said, “You have to compete.” That sentiment was seconded, third-ed, and beyond by the remaining members of the class. When I asked if they found that of concern, no one really did. I remember walking out of class that day quite disillusioned. How did we get to a point that cheating to compete is seen as necessary or acceptable? I do not find any of the students to be bad people, but certainly my opinion of them is affected by what they said. What I remember is struggling to come to grips with my new-found knowledge. What are the ethics of honesty? Is there such a thing? Assuredly, there is a connection between honesty and truth, but what is it? And perhaps more importantly, how does it work? Entire courses are taught on this, so any sense that I can do this topic justice in a blog is a bit ludicrous, or an exercise in the absurd, and yet, it is something worth consideration.
While there are a number of truth theories, perhaps the most accepted one is referred to as correspondence theory, which addresses how our “minds relate to reality” (Ethics Center), but how can we know what something really is if all things are based on perception? Additionally, one might consider what is called a coherence theory of truth, which means one works within the accepted systems, arguing there is a consistency in what is understood (Ethics Center). However, what happens when neither seems to be working? Is all truth situational? It seems we might find ourselves in such a space in our current world, and if so, again, what are the consequences? If truth and honesty are connected, which I believe they are, if there is no substantive truth, what happens to the concept of honesty? If being truthful, whatever that means, is connected to behaving ethically, then honesty is connected. Aristotelian virtue ethics is integrally connected to the concept of honesty, and, in fact, many of Aristotle’s virtues are connected to what he referred to as the “stable equilibrium of the soul” (Sachs). This statement about the soul is, for me, instructional because it is about how conduct connects to our internal compass of right and wrong, of what is acceptable or unacceptable. It is that connection that seem to have lost its way in our present world.
At every level of our national conversation, there seems to be little regard for honesty or truthfulness, the sort of aberrant behavior that characterizes our dialogue is stupefying, and that is in more than one way. First, there is the reality of how startling is it; second, the fact that it is so commonplace we accept it as typical speaks to its insidious consequence. The fact that Richard Nixon resigned rather than be impeached in comparison to where we are today speaks volumes to how our national consciousness, our collective national attitude toward truth and honesty, has changed. While eating lunch with a dear colleague today we noted the difference in our students, their expectations, and the expectations of even our administrators. Education is the foundation of democracy. Critical thought and careful analysis are fundamental to navigating the complexities of the world in which we live. This is not an idealistic hope, it is reality. The fact that a substantial percentage of the American public no longer believes many of the basic tenets of our great American experiment still function or matter does not create any sense of security for our future. How did we get here? There is no easy answer, and to posit one would be naive, but are there things to which one might point as primary concerns. For me, integrity is one. Integrity can be understood as a code of conduct, the principles, the morals or values by which someone chooses to conduct themselves. As such it is a sort of uncompromising set of standards by which someone conducts themselves, a sort of deontological, Kantian understanding of right and wrong, that categorical imperative. Let me also assert there is nothing easy or simple in being unwaveringly principled (mostly because we are selfish – I am reminded of the elements in the Lutheran liturgy which say, “We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart: we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.” Therein is a the perfect reality of our selfish nature . . . at another point, we note we are selfish and unclean. It seems we have forgotten Paul’s admonishment in Romans 6, when the apostle inquires, “What are we to say to this? Should we sin all the more that grace may abound?” and he answers immediately (in the Greek imperative), “Certainly not!” Again, it seems we have listened only to the first half of Luther’s statement, “If you are going to sin, sin boldly!!” Certainly most don’t know the context of this letter to Melanchthon, but it is worth considering (please do go look at it). It seems most of us have now created the world where this is all we practice. The sort of ask for forgiveness later, if we ask at all.
While it is not my intent to make this a blog about doctrine, there is certainly a connection for me from my time as a parish pastor to the person I am today. It is interesting to me that I believe there are so many parts of my life I would or could be much more effective at than I was at the time. And many of those reasons are related to the very essence of this blog post. I tell my students regularly, intelligence and work ethic are helpful in their roles as a student, but I am as interested in their integrity as anything. It is that element that will propel them toward being successful in a manner that matters more for society, for the future of a world struggling with issues of climate, discrimination, gender-inequality, racism, and the list can go on. Integrity is as much as social construct as issues of truth or honesty. As I write this blog, our former President is in court; the current President’s son has been voted to be in contempt of Congress; the war between Ukraine and Russia continues to rage, killing both combatants and civilians daily; the war between Israel and Hamas (or at large the Palestinians) is an unmitigated humanitarian disaster. Our elected leaders are too busy sniping at each other to lead in a meaningful manner; those running to be the next President seem to have more flaws than attributes; and we are more interested in who wins the Super Bowl or which NFL coach lost their job. Hmmmmmm? Who are we and what have we become as a country, as a humanity? Where did we lose that focus to be people of principle? I am not sure what we can say or to what in specific we might point, but perhaps we need to go back to the things we were taught as pre-schoolers . . . treat people with respect . . . be honest and do not lie . . . use manners first and foremost . . . perhaps we need a primer on al the things we have seemed to have forgotten. I am reminded of the Prayer of St. Francis, which I had sung at my ordination. While there are a number of versions of it, this version by John Michael Talbot was sung by my best friend who has been gone for almost 9 years. It is a song that still convicts me to this day.
Thank you as always for reading, and I wish you peace.
Dr. Martin
thewritingprofessor55 
Dr Martin,
I really enjoyed this post about honesty and integrity. I believe in this day and age there are so many more people able to hide and keep secrets because of social media. Those that make up lies about their life have a much easier time keeping those lies looking like the truth online. Not only that but there are people that lie so much in their life that they start to believe their own lies. It really is sad that people revert to this because they are scared to be judge about their true selves.
This past Christmas my sister and brother in law got in a fight about lying. Since my brother in-law was young he would tell little white lies to his parents because he felt as if he needed to be perceived as perfect in their eyes. Well, this continued until he got older and he would tell little lies that were not necessary to my sister and she got pretty irritated about it. She told him that she did not care if he was perfect or not, she loves him for him no matter what and he realized that he needs to change. It is crazy that behavior like this is learned from a young age and lying comes with consequences once caught. He told us that if he did one thing wrong when he was younger and his parents found out they were very hard on him tot he point that they would disown him because image was everything. It is a lot of pressure to put on a kid at such a young age.
Also as classes move online student become more dishonest with cheating. Having online classes it is easier to look up information or take an online exam with a friend if not monitored. It has changed student learning, making actually learning information more short term than long term to help the student in the long run in their career. There are even apps that some friends I know use that can pull up an answer in minutes, I thought this was too good to be true until I seen a friend use it to take an exam. It is crazy how much effort students put in to cheat than actually learn the material for the class. I just feel if they were to put that effort to actually learn it would be so much more different. But with the frustration of studying for hours and not earning the grade they wanted some look at cheating as an easier more satisfying way to go.
Honesty is truly the best quality to have. I hate when someone lies to my face just because they do not want to hurt my feelings or just because they think it would make them look bad. I had always told my college coach to tell it to me straight, tell me I am not doing good or if I keep performing the way I do I will sit the bench. But she would always beat around the bush with me and tell me fibs that I would be so frustrated! The one day I stopped her and said stop messing with me and my performance giving me empty promises. She said okay, you’re a low to mid player and I can’t put you up against higher level teams. Well I disagreed and so did everyone else on my team. Teammates and fans always asked why I wasn’t playing more and I was questioning the same thing. Instead of disagreeing with her I told her give me what I need to improve on and I will improve it and become better! So I did and it was the best thing I could do, it gave me a sense of joy playing against the starters on our team and dominating at times just to show her I can play against the competition and all my teammates would hype me up. They were all so supportive, I will miss them when I graduate.
So I agree truthfulness is everything. I feel like everyone lies, our government, friends, even family at times. It seems like it comes off easier than telling the truth and it is just sad. The media hides what is going on in our world and covers it up with drama, like the Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift love story or the golden globes. No one really knows about the wars or conflicts going on unless they take initiative to search it up themselves. We as people are so blinded by the media, making it seem like it is okay for the government to fool the nation but it is not. This will only continue as time goes on.
Dr. Martin,
I cannot help but to unfortunately relate to the question you asked your room of students about cheating while in school. As I know this is obviously wrong, I can’t help but also feel numb to the concept, or believe it was necessary at times to “compete” with others, or really, just myself.
When you do think about how common lying has become in society, you very much realize how the mass amount of it that occurs all the time has somewhat desensitized us to it all. If anything, especially in the political arena, I expect it. The news outlets seem to be all corrupt and untrustworthy, and the reports about hidden scandals and false claims from politicians do not surprise me in the least. Lies are what I assume of when thinking of any person of power. What are they hiding? What is their real agenda? How are they trying to win us over? It would be foolish to believe everything they’re promising and telling you. Look for the inconsistencies and put your faith in the one that seems to be least corrupt. Even that is hard to come by these days. You do not have to be in political agreement to agree on how downhill our national system has become.
It is saddening, myself, to feel this desensitized to the lies I encounter daily. The lies I, myself, tell others when asked about myself, saying I’m doing great or the things I’ve been up to. Saying anything to hide how I truly am, putting on the facade of always doing well. Somewhat to save embarrassment and somewhat to appease and comfort the other asking. With that, I also assume that I receive those same lies in return. And I probably do. We have become people of perfectionism. Driven worse by social media and the unrealistic measures of success and lifestyle. Social platforms have only worsened the distrust and lying habits of everyone involved in them. Posting the perfect photo, the best highlights from your life. Only ever sharing your highs and always hiding your lows. It’s impossible to be honest in a society that expects you to always be your best; or match up with other peoples best.
It is hard to escape a world of lies when your constantly surrounded by them. One can only try to improve themselves and hope that being truthful and honest will become the new social standard.
Dr. Martin,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and reflections on the complex issues surrounding honest, truthfulness, and integrity. I really like how you approached these concepts in various contexts. From talking about your personal experiences to then talking about broader society observations like politics and the students in your class, cheating on an assignment is very helpful. The story about your students, as being a college student myself is something that does not surprise me at all, but is sad to hear. This example helps to back your statement about how honesty and transparency are seemingly undervalued and questions these ethical norms and the societal acceptance of certain behaviors. Through high school it seemed as if that kids who were considered the “smart” kids were not actually the smart ones. These kids were just the ones who knew how to cheat on things the best. The kids who are actually the smart kids were the ones who seemed about average, or a little above average, instead. As doing dual enrollment, during my first semester at Bloomsburg, my twin sister and I took cells, genes, and molecules as a prerequisite course, since we are both interested in the medical field. The week before the final, my sister and I spent hours studying and ended up getting a decent grade on it, however, I remember it annoyed my sister when kids from the class wouldn’t attend all week and only show up for tests and they got a hundred on the final. After the test my sister said that she wished she had cheated on the test, like everyone else had done too. An hour later, she then said, although she didn’t do as good as the other kids, she’s happy to know that she still did good without having to cheat her way through, and knowing that made her feel even better about herself. I see it as, it will always come back to bite you, so it is not worth it.
The exploration of lying, keeping secrets, and the ethical considerations tied to these actions is indeed a profound subject. The different perspectives you bring to this post, allow for the audience to get a diverse understanding of your purpose. Your reference to Sisela Bok’s publications on lying and secrets adds to an academic perspective in the discussion. It helps to highlight the significance of these ethical dilemmas in ones public and personal life. The connection drawn between honest, truthfulness, and Aristotelian virtue ethics, with the soul, offers a philosophical perceptive to the discussion as well. The way you explain the correlation about the correspondence and coherence theory helps to add depth to the discussion. Your idea of situational truth is something I strongly believe in. Through this post, I was able to reflect on these ideas and see the way this has altered our world and how things have changed, for the negative. This post made terms, come to a reality.
Thanks,
Olivia Kadryna
Dr. Martin,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and reflections on the complex issues surrounding honest, truthfulness, and integrity. I really like how you approached these concepts in various contexts. From talking about your personal experiences to then talking about broader society observations like politics and the students in your class, cheating on an assignment is very helpful. The story about your students, as being a college student myself is something that does not surprise me at all, but is sad to hear. This example helps to back your statement about how honesty and transparency are seemingly undervalued and questions these ethical norms and the societal acceptance of certain behaviors. Through high school it seemed as if that kids who were considered the “smart” kids were not actually the smart ones. These kids were just the ones who knew how to cheat on things the best. The kids who are actually the smart kids were the ones who seemed about average, or a little above average, instead. As doing dual enrollment, during my first semester at Bloomsburg, my twin sister and I took cells, genes, and molecules as a prerequisite course, since we are both interested in the medical field. The week before the final, my sister and I spent hours studying and ended up getting a decent grade on it, however, I remember it annoyed my sister when kids from the class wouldn’t attend all week and only show up for tests and they got a hundred on the final. After the test my sister said that she wished she had cheated on the test, like everyone else had done too. An hour later, she then said, although she didn’t do as good as the other kids, she’s happy to know that she still did good without having to cheat her way through, and knowing that made her feel even better about herself. I see it as, it will always come back to bite you, so it is not worth it.
The exploration of lying, keeping secrets, and the ethical considerations tied to these actions is indeed a profound subject. The different perspectives you bring to this post, allow for the audience to get a diverse understanding of your purpose. Your reference to Sisela Bok’s publications on lying and secrets adds to an academic perspective in the discussion. It helps to highlight the significance of these ethical dilemmas in ones public and personal life. The connection drawn between honest, truthfulness, and Aristotelian virtue ethics, with the soul, offers a philosophical perceptive to the discussion as well. The way you explain the correlation about the correspondence and coherence theory helps to add depth to the discussion. Your idea of situational truth is something I strongly believe in. Through this post, I was able to reflect on these ideas and see the way this has altered our world and how things have changed, for the negative. This post made terms, come to a reality.
Thanks,
Olivia Kadryna
Dear Dr. Martin,
This blog immediately caught my eye because of three reasons. The first reason would be that integrity is a word people often like to use to describe themselves. I wanted me to delve deeper into the blog and begin to read a different perspective on what it is to have integrity. Secondly, my mother has reiterated the importance of integrity my whole life. Lastly, I am currently reading a book where I think the message of this blog had correlation to an important chapter in this book.
As I begin to dissect as to why you began to ponder on this thought of integrity, I wanted to begin with what the blog says about the world as well as your perception. You stated in “The importance of Integrity” that “societally we seem to be comfortable with dishonesty, either through lying and in keeping secrets”. The word comfortable has deep meaning here. In society everyone loves to be comfortable. We love it so much that we sometimes jeopardize who we are as humans to feel that way. Your whole class admitted to cheating, you were surprised, I was not. People would rather cheat then work hard because it is easy. I think easy is associated with comfortability. I 100 percent agree with you in the fact that I think cheating is wrong and a person of integrity would not cheat. It goes against everything the word stands for.
My mother has always been a person of integrity and has valued the importance of it. It seems that you have the same belief. She recently just received a new promotion. Man I am proud of her. During the interview process she needed to take a test asking her knowledge of her work field. A friend of hers already took the test and sent my mom the answers out of courtesy. My mom refused to look at the answers and said she could never live with herself is she had taken them. She was baffled her friend even sent her the answers just as you were when your whole class admitted to cheating. Dr. Martin I think your pondering on the topic was rooted from who you are and how much you value integrity. Just as my mom. I think integrity used to be valued more in the past. As a college student in 2024, I am subjected to lying politicians, people cheating all around me, social media presenting me nastiness in this world, and much more. Integrity doesn’t seem all that important anymore.
Something that keeps me motivated to be a person of integrity are two things. The first is fairly obvious, I want to be a good person. People of integrity are good humans. The second reason is that I want to protect my reputation at all costs. I am currently reading a book called “The 48 Laws of Power” by Robert Greene (I highly recommend). A law presented in the book discusses the importance of an individuals reputation. Reputation is how society judges a person. If tarnished, things in ones life could be jeopardized. Arguably, friends and family being the most important. Knowing if I keep my word and always try to be a person of integrity, my reputation will be protected and people will appreciate knowing me.
I wanted to offer a fun rebuttal as this question was raised to me before. Illegal usage of steroids is something illegal in college football. I used to look down upon people who used them. I was told by a football trainer I know (who has worked with pro athletes) that almost every single one of his athletes has abused steroids once in their life to make it pro. Initially I could not fathom why they would do that. It jeopardized everything they worked for. He then explained that some of those athletes grew up in harsh environments and thought that if they used steroids it could put them over the top where they could become pro, receive a large sum of money, and be able to take care of their family and friends living in dangerous environments; They were not the only person to do it and they deemed it ok. Do these people have no integrity for cheating even thought their motivation behind their actions were morally acceptable. I thought I could receive insightful information from you.
Matthew,
That is a great last question, and there is more than one way to consider it. Please stop by during office hours, and let’s chat.
Dr. Martin
Dr. Martin,
I really appreciate this topic and your thoughts on it. Your question got me thinking – “What is it that makes such a process or action seem preferable to merely telling the truth and facing the consequences for our actions?” I wonder about this myself. Someone close to me freely mentioned that she has cheated “so much,” on every one of her boyfriends. I’ve asked her about it, carefully and with a note of curiosity rather than judgement. She admitted she knew it was wrong, and yet kept making excuses for it. It made me wonder, was the validation so necessary? Was it the attention? Was it the addictive cycle of wanting approval or a new conquest? What need was so crucial that it required her to disregard her partner’s feelings? She would say something like, “oh, my partner doesn’t do x,” when she could have easily taught him to do x. Perhaps she didn’t see it that way. Perhaps she had already told herself that her needs were not going to be found with her current partner, and this rationalized her outsourcing those needs.
The abandonment of integrity is increasingly normalized and that is deeply troublesome. Our government sets a horrendous precedent, they’re often lying about things and then admitting to it years or decades later. It erodes public trust in their integrity. And despite their history of lying, there was a time during Biden’s administration when they wanted to create a Ministry of Truth, to censor and dictate what the public should see. Our government has only themselves and their colossal ego to blame for the public’s increasing cynicism.
Truth cannot be “situational,” but experience is, and experiences shape what we internalize as truth. Most people, perhaps because of our “fallen” nature (some may say), have a point that they can be pushed to, that would cause them to act in ways that they normally wouldn’t. For some students, that means competing for a grade. If people want something badly enough, they won’t care what it takes to get it. It’s unfortunate, but if we draw together as a society to collectively provide for each other’s needs, then I think we can lessen the need to lie and cheat for it.
Thank you for expressing the importance of integrity and linking it back to ethics, I enjoyed reading your thoughts.
Hannah S
Dear Dr. Martin,
I found this post interesting in a few ways. First off this is exactly how my brother thinks. He will write his thoughts down in a book about different topics and discuss the ethics of it. My brother will do a back and forth with himself about a topic. Secondly, I can confirm I have cheated before in classes. When your ability to be seen in college depends on if you get a grade or not and your best isn’t what people look for then cheating is imminent. Some other reasons I know students have cheated are several bad days, losing track of time, and other big tests in other classes. Cheating is absolutely wrong but when you view it from the student’s perspective it makes sense. Lastly, I believe that our world at least the way it runs now has to change. People fight and bicker over the smallest of things. Party affiliations, gender, and sexual orientation to name a few. The people in power do not care about the world as most of them won’t be around to see the result of their actions. There needs to be an age limit on running the country. If you can’t work because of age, you can’t be able to run for office. That is at least what I have to add about your thoughts on this post.
Dear Dr. Martin,
Your post raises a controversial topic in my mind. I believe it is important to understand why cheating has become so acceptable and prevalent academically. The first cause, which many are quick to point out, is that the educational system places too much emphasis on the grade rather than the learning to get that grade. I very much agree that this is part of the problem. The other part of the problem, as I believe, is the standard, one-size-fits-all approach that is used for education throughout K-12. When taking a class that you have no interest in, but the end grade matters because it affects your GPA, why would you not cheat in that class? After all, if you cheat in that class, you might have more time to focus on classes you might actually be interested in learning.
What comes to mind when thinking about this was a certain test I had taken in 10th-grade chemistry. The test was almost purely memorization, involving elements of the periodic table and common chemical compositions. It was a hard, time-consuming task to try and commit it all to memory. From my perspective, for students who have no interest in chemistry and never planned to go into that profession, the choice to cheat made logical sense and was all too tempting to resist. For me, I knew enough to do well on the exam, so the risk of getting caught cheating and getting a zero instead of maybe an 85 wasn’t all too tempting for me. But allow me to assure you that was not the prevailing thought of the class; almost everyone cheated on that test. When I say almost everyone, I mean it. The girl who would become valedictorian, also the salutatorian, and many people who were in the top ten in the class all cheated.
I find the idea of cheating to be somewhat in a gray area. On the one hand, learning and putting in the work should be worth doing alone for the mental exercise. On the other, though, I have never needed to recall an element or a common chemical composition after 10th grade. So if I had cheated, would it really have destroyed my ability to work honestly on other assignments and tests? I am poised to say it wouldn’t. While it may be wrong morally, in a competitive sense, and logically, it’s not a bad idea if you can get away with it. I believe that many exhausted students have to ask themselves if they would rather bend their morals or fail a test, hurting the plan for their future. The one thing I can say I am one hundred percent sure of is that I should have never found myself having to memorize table elements when I knew I had no interest in going into that profession in the first place.
Growing up in America, I agree that dishonesty and deception is something I encounter frequently with friends, peers, collogues, as well as adult figures in my life. This may be, as you mentioned, due to fear of potential punishment that has been instilled in many people since childhood. As a college student myself who has grown up in the American school system, I can attest that I have witnessed a lot of cheating and have even partaken in minor cheating in the past on assignments. I never felt good when it would happen, but I felt as though it was only way. Since the modern school system is based solely on completion of assignments and unspoken competition to be the best in your class, there is not as much motivation for students to actually learn. I feel as though standardized testing inhibits students from truly learning and retaining information in schools. This leads to the mindset of “I don’t care about this schoolwork so I will just cheat in order to turn something in and get a decent grade.” This is why I am not surprised by your results when asking your students if they have cheated before, because we all have at some point which is extremely unfortunate.
Personally, I dislike anyone who is dishonest, which is why over the years of my person growth journey and as I have naturally matured, I have been as honest as possible. I grew up surrounded by liars and so much false information and manipulation thrown my way to the point I felt that I never knew anyone’s true intentions and that I could not believe anything I heard. I was fed up. My moral compass has been shaped by my experiences with honesty and what I feel is ethical when it comes to the topic.
I am not a person that keeps up with politics due to negative prior experiences, but even if I do once in a while, I mostly keep my opinions to myself as to not start arguments with those around me. Something I do not mind speaking my mind about is that I believe that the mindset of many Americans need to change or else this country will reach the point of no return and all sense of integrity and honesty will be lost.
Dr. Martin,
Hello from Rochester, NY. I really enjoyed this blog. Honesty, integrity, and ethics are topics I really enjoy. I come from a family who lies just to lie. Excuses for the dumbest things rather than telling the truth. When you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings you come up with an elaborate story to justify your reasonings. I find it so much easier to just tell the truth. People respect you more and there is more trust and admiration when you just tell the truth. A certain “confidence” adheres people who are just plain honest.
I completely agree that the political climate of our country is very concerning and I wonder if it will ever get any better. I believe that cheating to compete is something that many people of my generation face. I feel as though from an early age we are expected to compete with our peers and fight for what is ours. I believe that them being honest is important and something that should be commended.
I believe that the purpose of this blog post was to bring more awareness to the idea of cheating in collegiate level classes. The addition of addressing some problems and issues that our country and world even face makes a point to describe what is wrong with everything. I believe that as an American society we have lost focus on humanity and have instead decided to focus more on greed. It is important to note that the pure reason for learning about history is to ensure that we do not repeat it, however it seems as though we are doing just the opposite.
In addition to your list of discussing the lack of integrity in our world I would like to add the genocides that are occuring throughout our world that people do not seem to either want to talk about or just want to simply ignore that they are occurring. While it is important to note the integrity of students, I believe that including what is going on in the rest of the world is important too.
While I understand that students must have integrity, I believe that the generations above us and more importantly the world leaders that are in charge of making decisions for us should be held to the same expectations in which students are held to. I completely understand that it is crucial for students to be held to high expectations, but it seems as though the older generations do not have to reach as high as students. It is easy to blame the generation of students for the integrity problems, but in the end why are these integrity problems occurring? How could we have gotten to this point? I hope that someday in the near future we can get to the point where everyone values, respects, and contributes to the integrity of not only themselves, but the world as a whole.
I believe that the intended audience is any students or individuals that may question the integrity of others. This discussion post also helps to begin a conversation of integrity in the sense of self-evaluation and peer-evaluation. Thank you for bringing this topic up as I believe that it is important when looking into world problems.
Dr. Martin,
I can relate with your understanding that people are lying and cheating more in the present than they ever had in the past. I believe that the internet is a gigantic cause for the increased dishonesty. Never before in human history has information been so easily accessible to so many than before the rise of the World Wide Web just a few decades ago.
The emergence of smartphones made cheating even easier, as after that, students could attain all necessary information, even in the midst of an exam, just from quickly tapping a few keys on a phone hidden from an instructor’s sight. With the rise of AI in the past few years, I think that the possibility to cheat in an academic setting has reached new extremes, as AI can provide detailed answers to most prompts more specifically than any regular internet search possibly could. The allure of these sources of knowledge at students’ fingertips proves to be too much to resist for many, thereby leading to the heightened frequency of cheating today.
On a more controversial note, I believe that many people today, include politicians, celebrities, and even average citizens have a greater risk of lying because they do not have their own moral code or creed. I believe that one negative consequence of our society’s secularization has been the loss of moral codes that people formerly adhered to, especially via religion. That is not to say that one must be religious to be moral, nor that religious people are ever amoral. History is full of so-called “pious” people who have committed atrocious acts. However, I think that it is possible that a large portion of people who have gradually turned away from a religion also broke with the moral codes of that religion too. Since then, they and their descendants may have believed themselves free to commit more amoral acts, without the fear of consequences from a higher power. As much as I believe that everyone should choose what they want to believe in, I think that a spiritually adhered-to code could be beneficial in reducing the wide instances of cheating and lying.
We live in a modern world with modern conveniences to augment our learning and allow for us to choose what we want to believe in. However, I believe that modern society’s loss of spirituality and morality have played a large role in the widescale reports of lying today.
Dr. Martin,
Similarly to you when I was growing up there was not much for me to lie about so in turn I just did not lie. As I have gotten older there is more to lie about yet I have a hard time lying, why is this? I think it is because I had a pretty good childhood where I felt comfortable communicating with my parents so there was no need for lying, now as I can’t lie I feel less comfortable with people and it causes some tension sometimes when I should tell a little white lie. The political state of our country as we know it has changed forever and this to me is crazy and not how politics should work. People lose friends over politics when yes politics are a big deal but aren’t human connections important too? Sometimes we lose sight of ourselves because of all these media sources and we just need to get back to reality and see that we are all just trying to find out way. I struggle with trying to be perfect so if I mess up one time I feel as if it is the end of the world, then I have to remind myself that I am living for the first time and I don’t need to be so hard on myself. Now to turn to integrity I think as a whole, Americans have little integrity and that is just because of what the world is turning into. Cheating like you said is now easier as well as seems as something people just do and not something that most people reprimand. It is sad and I think as a society we need to try and have more integrity. Thank you as always for sharing your thoughts, have a great weekend.
Hello Dr. Marin,
I enjoyed reading your blog about people lying and I have to say I lied to my parents when I was a child as well. When I was a kid I would lie but then I would feel guilty about the situation and I would apologize to my mom. I honestly think lying is a great and bad thing when in a situations. It can be a great thing when you are alone at a coffee shop or a parking lot because it can help save your life. When lying at work or to a family member you can lose trust with people. at this moment I have been working on my ASL interpreter certification and it is a lot of work. Sadly, We have seen people lying about knowing ASL and trying to interpret for a horrible event because this does not give access to the Deaf community. Lying can have an effect on other people’s lives which could cause harm. That is why before you lie think before you say.
Hello Dr. Martin,
What I want to focus on in this post is your connecting being truthful and acting ethically. You said, “If being truthful, whatever that means, is connected to behaving ethically, then honesty is connected.” I would like to raise a counterargument, that being lying is necessary. I am not playing devil’s advocate here this is something that I have thought about for quite some time. No, I am absolutely not saying that lying is good but I do think that situationally being dishonest is a necessary evil. I’ll give you an example, a friend of mine has a family member with dementia. His grandmother’s son (my friend’s father) died in a car accident a period of time after she was diagnosed with dementia. Whenever the family is around, his grandmother always asks where Jack (her son, his father) is, and why he doesn’t come around anymore. The family collectively agrees that it is better to make up where he is, the general rule being that it is somewhere good. They say things like “Jack is in Europe right now, getting his doctorate” or “Jack couldn’t make it, he’s doing charity work” (those aren’t specific examples but you get my point.) There was a mutual understanding in the family that it was much better not only for their grandmother, but all of them if they did not tell her that her son, her first born son, had died before her. For a long time this was mental turmoil for Jason (my friend). I remember once him spending the night at my house solely because he was sick of lying to his grandmother and reliving that his father had died. Over time, he understood it was a necessary evil, he began to see the joy these made up stories would bring to his grandmother. One time I was invited to a family dinner with Jason and I sat with his grandmother. She did not remember Jason, but she told me several stories about her son Jack and what he had been up to. Once again, no I am not saying that lying is good. I am merely adding food for thought.
Jake Hodder
Dr. Martin,
I find this post particularly interesting as through my K-12 years I knew far more than a hand full of people who would cheat just because they could. I noticed this more and more as the years went on. Frankly, I was always too scared to cheat as I worried one day I would try and immediately get caught due to my lack of poker face. I think now more than ever it is so unbelievably easy to cheat on an assignment or test. The push to move classes and testing to an online medium is the issue in my opinion. Now students can take a test from home that has no kind of lock down browser or preventative measure and just google the answers as they take the test, or have the textbook open next to them. I much prefer all aspects of school to be in person as it is better suited to my learning style, but I understand the potential convenience of having an online class.
Focusing on the idea that everyone should be honest 100% of the time is something I have thought about a lot. I was always told as a kid that karma is something that will find its way back to you and if you lie about something the universe will not be happy. Now as an adult I find myself telling little white lies almost every day even though more often than not I am blunter than a dull knife. With that being said, I know there are people in my life that cannot handle such brutal honesty and those situations must be handled with grace. Sometimes it is easier to tell people what they want to hear and thats the sad truth. Now I don’t mean lies that are going to be detrimental to someones perspective or decisions but rather lies that have little to no consequence. For example If I was at a work event and I had a killer headache and know I would rather be at home grinding away at work I need to get done and my boss comes over and asks me if I am enjoying the event, I am always going to say yes no matter how much I want to say no. This does not make me a bad person by any means but is an aspect of life that is unavoidable. Acting with integrity means doing the right thing when no one is watching and some times being in the moment and telling that little white lie may just be the “right thing” to do.
Have a wonderful day!
Good evening from my boyfriend’s house. Today was a pretty good day. My boyfriend and I took our friends to Knoebel’s for the day. It was a pretty nice and relaxing day spending time with them. All of us leave to go to Fort Knox at different points this summer and today was our last day for all of us to hang out together before the first one of us leaves.
This blog post, in my opinion, is probably one of the most important ones written that I have read thus far. It touches on a topic that is so important, yet never addressed and talked about. It is quite sad that the world we live in today is run by people who lie all the time and it is hard to know what is true and false any more. People lie to other people every day, whether it is with malicious intent or not. Sometimes, unfortunately, you have to lie to people to keep them safe and protect their innocence on a situation.
I have to admit that I have cheated on assignments. I will not lie about that because there is no point in lying. Everybody cheats or lies one way or another. Every person is dishonest is some form. I am not proud of the cheating I have done, but sometimes it was the only way for me to pass a class. I have not cheated in this class at all because I care about this class and want to stay honest. This class is valuable not just because it completes a GenEd requirement, but it is helping me to make myself improve as a person and as a writer. I am learning how to do group projects, write a cover letter and resume, and have the pleasure of responding to blog posts. I have truly come to enjoy reading and responding to blog posts so much that I plan to, as long as you keep doing these blog posts, come back, read blog posts, and respond to them. So please, please, please do keep your blog page. I have truly found peace and relaxation in reading and responding to your blog posts. It helps to calm down my overthinking mind by allowing me to clear it and concentrate all my thoughts into a post.