What is Honesty?

A few days ago I was interviewing a guy for a job and asked him what he thought his strengths were. He responded by saying that his honesty was his biggest strength. I immediately threw a question back at him asking him to define honesty. Surprisingly, he could not answer this question even after thinking for a few minutes. Several times he started to explain but then went back into thinking mode and gave up in the end.

I of course asked this question just to check how quick the candidate could come up with a logical answer and rejected him after the interview but this question also left me thinking. For the next few days I asked several people the same question but not even one could define or explain what honesty really is. Some of the answers I heard to my question were,

“Telling the truth is honesty”

“Doing what you are supposed to and expected to do is honesty”

“Being true to your self is honesty”

These are just some one line answers that some people gave me after thinking for a long time while majority of the people could not come up with an answer at all. This to me was highly ironic. Is Honesty not what we preach and pray for day in and out? Is this not what young ones are taught by their parents and school? So are we just teaching and preaching something that we could not define at all? So is honesty just an Illusion then? Are we living our entire lives chasing an illusion? Before reading any further, try answering this question on your own and think how long it would actually take you to come up with something that could help define honesty.

After speaking to several people, listening to a lot of answers, the best definition that I could come up with for honesty was,

“Honesty is when one person’s gain or act is nobody’s financial, physical or emotional loss”

Same definition of course applies to a group of people as well.

Think about it. Is this really not the absolute definition of honesty? If truth was honesty, will a person who admits to a murder be called honest? Will people really accept him to be honest in that moment? If honesty was doing what you are supposed to do then what would you call a poor man who steals to feed his young one? Honesty of course cannot be if it is disputed. If a person or act has to be called honest, then there has to be a universal agreement to it and a universal agreement can only be achieved when no one was affected in a negative manner. Only when everyone comes to a mutual consent can a person or act be called honest. If even one person disputes it, the definition cannot be absolute.

But then is there such an act possible that gains someone but does not cause a loss to anyone at all? We after all live in a world based on the concept of food chain, where one being survives off eating another being. Where everyone uses everyone and gets used by everyone. So how do you then achieve honesty?

I may have come up with an explanation for what honesty can really be that sounded convincing to everyone but how do you achieve it is something that I am still looking for an answer to. Any suggestions are most welcome.