Topic

Integrity

6 essays on integrity from the Consilium journal. Featuring Soren Kierkegaard, Arthur Schopenhauer, Leo Tolstoy. Each pits three thinkers against one hard question.


Ethics

What Do You Do When Doing the Right Thing Would Cost You Everything?

Three thinkers on moral cost and conscience. Kierkegaard says anxiety is freedom's price. Schopenhauer says examine what you're protecting. Tolstoy says your conscience already knows.

Soren KierkegaardArthur SchopenhauerLeo TolstoyIntegritySacrificeConscience

Ethics

When Is It Right to Bend a Rule You Believe In?

Three thinkers disagree about principled compromise. Clausewitz says friction is real. Aristotle says rules exist to serve something deeper. Havel says complicity compounds.

ClausewitzAristotleVaclav Havelintegritycompromise

Ethics

When Is It Right to Break a Promise?

Three thinkers on broken promises. Russell says logic decides. Du Bois says justice overrides. Austen says character is what you do when keeping your word costs.

Bertrand RussellW.E.B. Du BoisJane AustenIntegrityCommitment

Ethics

Is Loyalty Always a Virtue?

Three thinkers disagree about blind loyalty. Machiavelli asks what the situation requires. Havel asks what you refuse to say. Wollstonecraft asks who benefits.

Niccolo MachiavelliVaclav HavelMary WollstonecraftLoyaltyIntegrityIndependence

Ethics

When Is Silence Complicity?

Three thinkers on when to speak out. Orwell says name what you see. Douglass says silence has always served the powerful. Weil says look first, then speak.

George OrwellFrederick DouglassSimone WeilHonestyCourageIntegrity

Ethics

Should I Tell the Truth If It Will Hurt Someone?

Three thinkers disagree about honesty and harm. Hannah Arendt defends the truth. Confucius defends the bond. Nietzsche asks what your honesty is really serving.

Hannah ArendtConfuciusFriedrich NietzscheHonestyIntegrityCourage

Related

Aristotle Arthur Schopenhauer Bertrand Russell Clausewitz Confucius Frederick Douglass Friedrich Nietzsche George Orwell Hannah Arendt Jane Austen Leo Tolstoy Mary Wollstonecraft Niccolo Machiavelli Simone Weil Soren Kierkegaard Vaclav Havel W.E.B. Du Bois Commitment Conscience Courage Honesty Independence Loyalty Sacrifice compromise

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