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Integrity comprises perceived consistency
Consistency

Consistency can refer to:* Consistency * Consistency , the psychological need to be consistent with prior acts and statements* "Consistency", an 1887 speech by Mark Twain...
 of actions, values, methods, measures and principles. As a holistic
Holism

Holism is the idea that all the properties of a given system cannot be determined or explained by its component parts alone. Instead, the system as a whole determines in an important way how the parts behave....
 concept, it judges the quality of a system in terms of its ability to achieve its own goals. A value system
Value system

A value system is a set of consistent ethic values and measures used for the purpose of ethical or ideological integrity. A well defined value system is a moral code....
's abstraction depth
Abstraction layer

An abstraction layer is a way of hiding the implementation details of a particular set of functionality. Software models that use layers of abstraction include the OSI model for computer network Protocol , the OpenGL graphics drawing library, and the byte stream input/output model originated by Unix and adopted by MSDOS, Linux, and most ot...
 and range of applicable interaction may also function as significant factors in identifying integrity due to their congruence or lack of congruence with empirical observation. A value system may evolve over time while retaining integrity if those who espouse the values account for and resolve inconsistencies.

Integrity may be seen as the quality
Quality (philosophy)

A quality is an attribute or a property. Attributes are ascribable, by a subject, whereas properties are possessible. Some philosophers assert that a quality cannot be defined....
 of having a sense
Intuition (knowledge)

Intuition is the apparent ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason.?The word ?intuition? comes from the Latin word 'intueri', which is often roughly translated as meaning ?to look inside? or ?to contemplate?."...
 of honesty
Honesty

Honesty is the human quality of communicating and acting truthfully, in accordance with a sense of fairness and sincerity. This includes all varieties of communication, both verbal and non-verbal....
 and truthfulness in regard to the motivations for one's actions.






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Integrity comprises perceived consistency
Consistency

Consistency can refer to:* Consistency * Consistency , the psychological need to be consistent with prior acts and statements* "Consistency", an 1887 speech by Mark Twain...
 of actions, values, methods, measures and principles. As a holistic
Holism

Holism is the idea that all the properties of a given system cannot be determined or explained by its component parts alone. Instead, the system as a whole determines in an important way how the parts behave....
 concept, it judges the quality of a system in terms of its ability to achieve its own goals. A value system
Value system

A value system is a set of consistent ethic values and measures used for the purpose of ethical or ideological integrity. A well defined value system is a moral code....
's abstraction depth
Abstraction layer

An abstraction layer is a way of hiding the implementation details of a particular set of functionality. Software models that use layers of abstraction include the OSI model for computer network Protocol , the OpenGL graphics drawing library, and the byte stream input/output model originated by Unix and adopted by MSDOS, Linux, and most ot...
 and range of applicable interaction may also function as significant factors in identifying integrity due to their congruence or lack of congruence with empirical observation. A value system may evolve over time while retaining integrity if those who espouse the values account for and resolve inconsistencies.

Integrity may be seen as the quality
Quality (philosophy)

A quality is an attribute or a property. Attributes are ascribable, by a subject, whereas properties are possessible. Some philosophers assert that a quality cannot be defined....
 of having a sense
Intuition (knowledge)

Intuition is the apparent ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason.?The word ?intuition? comes from the Latin word 'intueri', which is often roughly translated as meaning ?to look inside? or ?to contemplate?."...
 of honesty
Honesty

Honesty is the human quality of communicating and acting truthfully, in accordance with a sense of fairness and sincerity. This includes all varieties of communication, both verbal and non-verbal....
 and truthfulness in regard to the motivations for one's actions. The term "hypocrisy
Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy , is acting in a manner contradictory to one's professed beliefs and feelings, or conversely, expressing false beliefs and opinions in order to conceal one's real feelings or motives....
" 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.

Testing of integrity


One can test a value system's accountability
Accountability

Accountability is a concept in ethics with several meanings. It is often used synonymously with such concepts as Social responsibility, answerability, enforcement, blameworthiness, liability and other terms associated with the expectation of account-giving....
 either:

  1. subjectively, by a person's individual measures or
  2. objectively, via the Scientific Method
    Scientific method

    Scientific method refers to techniques for investigating phenomenon, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and Measure evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning....
     or standardized mathematical measure


Integrity in relation to value systems


A value
Value (personal and cultural)

A personal and cultural value is a relative ethic value, an assumption upon which implementation can be extrapolated. A value system is a set of consistent value and measures....
 consists of an assumption from which one can extrapolate implementation or other values. A value system
Value system

A value system is a set of consistent ethic values and measures used for the purpose of ethical or ideological integrity. A well defined value system is a moral code....
 comprises a set of consistent values
Value (ethics)

In ethics, value is a property of object , including physical objects as well as abstract objects , representing their degree of importance.Ethic value denotes something's degree of importance, with the aim of determining what action or life is best to do or live, or at least attempt to describe the value of different actions....
 and measures. The Scientific Method
Scientific method

Scientific method refers to techniques for investigating phenomenon, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and Measure evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning....
 assumes that a system with perfect integrity yields a singular hypothetical extrapolation that one can test against observed results.

Testing theories via the Scientific Method


Formal measures of integrity rely on a set of testing principles known as the Scientific Method
Scientific method

Scientific method refers to techniques for investigating phenomenon, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and Measure evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning....
. To the extent that a proof follows the requirements of the method, scholars consider that proof scientific. The Scientific Method include measures to ensure unbiased testing
Test method

A test method is a definitive procedure that produces a test result. The test result can be qualititive , categorical, or quantititive . It can be a personal observation or the output of a precision measuring instrument....
 and a requirement that the hypothesis
Hypothesis

A hypothesis consists either of a suggested explanation for an observable phenomenon or of a reasoned proposal predicting a possible causal correlation among multiple phenomena....
 have falsifiability
Falsifiability

Falsifiability is the logical possibility that an assertion can be shown false by an observation or a physical experiment. That something is "falsifiable" does not mean it is false; rather, that if it is false, then this can be shown by observation or experiment....
.

One tests the integrity of a value system scientifically by using the values, methods and measures of the system to formulate a hypothesis of an expected cause-and-effect relationship. When the cause creates the expected effect consistently amongst multiple unbiased testers, the value system is said to have integrity.

For example, Newtonian physics
Classical mechanics

Classical mechanics is used for describing the motion of macroscopic objects, from projectiles to parts of machinery, as well as astronomical objects, such as spacecraft, planets, stars, and galaxies....
, general relativity
General relativity

General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the Geometry Theoretical physics of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916....
 and quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a set of principles underlying the most fundamental known description of all physical systems at the microscopic scale . Notable amongst these principles are both a dual wave-like and particle-like behavior of matter and radiation, and prediction of probabilities in situations where classical physics predicts certaintie...
 are three distinct systems, each scientifically proven to have integrity according to their base assumptions and measures. None of them claim to be absolute truth
Universality (philosophy)

In philosophy, universalism is a doctrine or school claiming universal facts can be discovered and is therefore understood as being in opposition to relativism....
. Scientific testing is not useful for identifying "absolute truth" because scientific tests assume principles, values, methods and measures outside of the scope of the test. Rather, the Scientific Method is used to proof the integrity of a value system and to establish its conclusions as consistent with the assumptions used, thereby enabling further extrapolation within that domain
Domain knowledge

Most generally, domain knowledge is the knowledge which is valid and directly used for a pre-selected domain of human endeavor or an autonomous computer activity....
.

Integrity in ethics


In discussions on behavior
Behavior

Behavior or behaviour refers to the action s or reactions of an object or organism, usually in Relational theory to the environment. Behavior can be conscious or Unconscious mind, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary....
 and morality
Morality

Morality has three principal meanings.In its first, descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct which is held to be authoritative in matters of right and wrong....
, one view of the property
Property (philosophy)

In modern philosophy, mathematics, and logic, a property is an attribute of an Object ; thus a red object is said to have the property of redness....
 of integrity sees it as the virtue
Virtue

Virtue is morality excellence. Personal virtues are characteristics Value as promoting individual and collective well-being, and thus Goodness and value theory by definition....
 of basing actions on an internally-consistent framework of principle
Principle

A principle is a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption. A rule or code of conduct. The laws or facts of nature underlying the working of an artificial device....
s. This scenario may emphasize depth of principles and adherence of each level to the next. One can describe a person as having integrity to the extent that everything that that person does or believes: actions, methods, measures and principles — all derive from the same core group of values
Value system

A value system is a set of consistent ethic values and measures used for the purpose of ethical or ideological integrity. A well defined value system is a moral code....
.

In the context of accountability
Accountability

Accountability is a concept in ethics with several meanings. It is often used synonymously with such concepts as Social responsibility, answerability, enforcement, blameworthiness, liability and other terms associated with the expectation of account-giving....
, integrity measures consistency between one's actions and one's principles and methods used when an expected result appears incongruent with observed outcome. Some regard integrity as a virtue
Virtue

Virtue is morality excellence. Personal virtues are characteristics Value as promoting individual and collective well-being, and thus Goodness and value theory by definition....
 in that they see accountability
Accountability

Accountability is a concept in ethics with several meanings. It is often used synonymously with such concepts as Social responsibility, answerability, enforcement, blameworthiness, liability and other terms associated with the expectation of account-giving....
 and moral responsibility
Moral responsibility

Moral responsibility can refer to two different but related things. First, a person has 'moral responsibility' for a situation if that person has an obligation to ensure that something happens....
 as necessary tools for maintaining such consistency.

In the context of value theory
Value theory

Value theory encompasses a range of approaches to understanding how, why, and to what degree humans should or do value things, whether the thing is a person, idea, object, or anything else....
, integrity provides the expected causation from a base value
Value (personal and cultural)

A personal and cultural value is a relative ethic value, an assumption upon which implementation can be extrapolated. A value system is a set of consistent value and measures....
 to its extrapolated implementation or other values. A value system
Value system

A value system is a set of consistent ethic values and measures used for the purpose of ethical or ideological integrity. A well defined value system is a moral code....
 emerges as a set of values
Value (ethics)

In ethics, value is a property of object , including physical objects as well as abstract objects , representing their degree of importance.Ethic value denotes something's degree of importance, with the aim of determining what action or life is best to do or live, or at least attempt to describe the value of different actions....
 and measures that one can observe as consistent with expectations.

Some commentators stress the idea of integrity as personal honesty
Honesty

Honesty is the human quality of communicating and acting truthfully, in accordance with a sense of fairness and sincerity. This includes all varieties of communication, both verbal and non-verbal....
: acting according to one's belief
Belief

Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true....
s and values at all times. Speaking about integrity can emphasize the "wholeness
Wholeness

Wholeness is an EP by Halou....
" or "intact
Intact

February 23rd, 2009 - ING Insurance Company of Canada has been renamed 'Intact Insurance'Intact can refer to:*Intact , a Romanian media trust...
ness" of a moral stance or attitude. Some views of wholeness may also emphasize commitment
Commitment

Commitment means to duty or pledge to something or someone, and can refer to:*Personal commitment, interaction dominated by obligations. These obligations may be mutual, or self-imposed, or explicitly stated, or may not....
 and authenticity
Authenticity (philosophy)

Authenticity is a technical term in existentialism, and is also used in the philosophy of art and psychology. In philosophy, the conscious self is seen as coming to terms with being in a material world and with encountering external forces, pressures and influences which are Other from, and other than, itself....
.

The etymology of the word "integrity" stems from the Latin adjective integer (whole, complete). In this context, integrity may comprise the personal inner sense of "wholeness" deriving from (say) honesty
Honesty

Honesty is the human quality of communicating and acting truthfully, in accordance with a sense of fairness and sincerity. This includes all varieties of communication, both verbal and non-verbal....
 and consistency of character
Moral character

Moral character or character is an evaluation of a particular individual's Morality qualities. The concept of character can imply a variety of attributes including the existence or lack of virtues such as integrity, courage, fortitude, honesty, and loyalty, or of good behaviors or Habit ....
. As such, one can judge that other "have integrity" to the extent that one judges whether they behave according to the values, beliefs and principles they claim to hold.

Popular views of integrity


Many people appear to use the word "integrity" in a vague manner as an alternative to the perceived political incorrectness of using blatantly moralistic terms such as "good" or ethical
Morality

Morality has three principal meanings.In its first, descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct which is held to be authoritative in matters of right and wrong....
. In this sense the term often refers to a refusal to engage in lying, blaming or other behavior
Behavior

Behavior or behaviour refers to the action s or reactions of an object or organism, usually in Relational theory to the environment. Behavior can be conscious or Unconscious mind, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary....
 generally seeming to evade accountability
Accountability

Accountability is a concept in ethics with several meanings. It is often used synonymously with such concepts as Social responsibility, answerability, enforcement, blameworthiness, liability and other terms associated with the expectation of account-giving....
.

Popular 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".

English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
-speakers may measure integrity in non-enumerated units called "scraps", speaking of preserving one's "last scraps of integrity" or having "not a scrap of integrity". This may imply that integrity in such situations can appear brittle or fragile — and apt to tarnish or decay.

Integrity in modern ethics


In a formal study of the term "integrity" and its meaning in modern ethics, law professor Stephen L. Carter
Stephen L. Carter

Stephen L. Carter born October 26 1954 is an United States law professor, legal- and social-policy writer, columnist, and novelist. He is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale Law School, where he has taught since 1982....
 sees integrity not only as a refusal to engage in behavior
Behavior

Behavior or behaviour refers to the action s or reactions of an object or organism, usually in Relational theory to the environment. Behavior can be conscious or Unconscious mind, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary....
 that evades responsibility
Responsibility

Responsibility may refer to:* Responsibility assumption, in spirituality and personal growth* Cabinet collective responsibility, a constitutional convention in governments using the Westminster System...
, but as an understanding of different modes or styles in which some discourse
Discourse

Discourse means either "written or spoken communication or debate" or "a formal discussion or debate." The term is often used in semantics and discourse analysis....
 takes place, and which aims at the discovery of some truth
Truth

semantic fields for the word truth extend from honesty, good faith, and sincerity in general, to agreement with fact or reality in particular....
.

Carter writes:

Integrity [...] requires three steps: (1) discerning what is right and what is wrong; (2) acting on what you have discerned, even at personal cost; and (3) saying openly that you are acting on your understanding of right from wrong.[...] Integrity [...] is not the same as honesty [...]


Law


An adversarial process
Adversarial process

An adversarial process is one that supports conflicting one-sided positions held by individuals, groups or entire societies, as inputs into the conflict resolution situation, typically with rewards for prevailing in the outcome....
 can have general integrity when both sides demonstrate willingness to share evidence
Evidence

Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Giving or procuring evidence is the process of using those things that are either a) presumed to be true, or b) were themselves proven via evidence, to demonstrate an assertion's truth....
, follow guidelines of debate and accept rulings from an arbitrator in a good-faith
Good faith

Good faith, or in Latin language bona fides , is the mental state and morality of honesty, belief as to the truth or falsehood of a proposition or body of opinion, or as to the rectitude or depravity of a line of conduct....
 effort to arrive at either the truth or a mutually equitable
Equitable

Companies*Scottish Equitable, is an investment company located in Edinburgh*Equitable PCI Bank*Equitable Resos*The Equitable Life Assurance Society, life insurance company in the United Kingdom...
 outcome. An honorable presentation of the case measures both sides of the argument with a consistent set of principles. Failure to present principles in accordance with observation or to try them unequally can weaken a case
Case

Case may refer to:...
.

Ethical integrity as measured by psychological/work-selection tests


Integrity (honesty) tests aim to identify which persons or wiki editors may hide perceived negative or derogatory events from their past or the past of a favored political figure(such as doing prison
Prison

A prison, penitentiary, or correctional facility is a place in which individuals are physically confined or internment and usually deprived of a range of personal Freedom ....
 time, getting psychiatric treatment, alcohol
Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is any organic compound in which a hydroxyl Functional group is bound to a carbon atom of an alkyl or substituted alkyl group....
 problems, etc.) and to identify to a prospective employer likely causes of strife. These tests make certain assumptions, namely that such persons report more dishonest behavior, they try to find reasons in order to justify such behavior, they think others more likely to commit crimes (like theft, for example), they exhibit impulsive
Impulsive

Impulsive may refer to:*Impulsive *Impulsiveness*Impulsion...
 behavior and tend to think that society should severely punish deviant behavior.

The pretension of such tests to detect fake answers plays a crucial role in this respect, because the naive really believe such outright lies and behave accordingly, reporting their past deviance because they fear that otherwise their answers will reveal it. The more Pollyanna
Pollyanna

Pollyanna is a best-selling 1913 in literature novel by Eleanor H. Porter that is now considered a classic of children's literature. The book was such a success that Porter soon produced a sequel, Pollyanna Grows Up ....
ish the answers, the higher the integrity score.

“Integrity can be compared to a great smoothie. It consists of many healthy and tasteful virtues such as discernment, loyalty, courage, honesty, and humility all mixed together to form one outstanding quality. Not only is it rewarding in the end, but the act of striving for it is well worth the effort.” — Peter Whagenbach

"Wiki Integrity" The absence of integrity concerning political issues, ie, integrity is lacking in policial topics, resulting in scrubbing of articles cleansing them of truthful but damaging information on political figures and issues supported by Wiki's editors.

Other integrities



Disciplines and fields with an interest in integrities include philosophy of action, philosophy of medicine
Medicine

Medicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, the mind
Mind

Mind refers to the aspects of intellect and consciousness manifested as combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, free will and imagination, including all of the brain's conscious and unconscious cognitive processes....
, cognition
Cognition

Cognition is the science term for "the process of thought."Its usage varies in different ways in accord with different disciplines: For example, in psychology and cognitive science it refers to an information processing view of an individual's psychological Functionalism s....
, consciousness
Consciousness

Consciousness is a difficult term to define, because the word is used and understood in a wide variety of ways, so that it frequently happens that what one person sees as a definition of consciousness is seen by others as about something else altogether....
, materials science
Materials science

Materials science or materials engineering is an interdisciplinary field involving the properties of matter and its applications to various areas of science and engineering....
, structural engineering
Structural engineering

Structural engineering is a field of engineering dealing with the analysis and design of structures that support or resist structural loads. Structural engineering is usually considered a specialty within civil engineering, but it can also be studied in its own right....
 and politics
Politics

Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporation, academia, and religion institutions....
.

Popular psychology identifies personal integrity, professional integrity, artistic integrity, and intellectual integrity.

Another use of the term "integrity" defines it as a model of workability.

One line thoughts



"Integrity is doing the right thing, especially when no one is watching."

See also



  • validity
    Validity

    The term Validity in logic applies to Argument or statements....
  • doubt
    Doubt

    Doubt, a status between belief and wikt:disbelief, involves uncertainty or distrust or lack of sureness of an alleged fact, an action, a motive, or a decision....
  • honesty
    Honesty

    Honesty is the human quality of communicating and acting truthfully, in accordance with a sense of fairness and sincerity. This includes all varieties of communication, both verbal and non-verbal....
  • data integrity
    Data integrity

    Data integrity is a term used in computer science and telecommunications that can mean ensuring data is "whole" or complete, the condition in which data are identically maintained during any operation , the preservation of data for their intended use, or, relative to specified operations, the a priori expectation of data quality....
  • integrious


External links



.


Footnotes