Integrity and Ethical Principles

Integrity is permanent application of moral and ethical principles in everyday life by a person (in personal and professional life) or an institution. Integrity is much broader concept than an individual ethical principle; integrity has no place among individual ethical principles.

1. Integrity and Ethical Principles
Julius Kravjar

On the site of International Center of Academic Integrity the integrity is defined as “adherence to moral
and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty” (quotation from dictionary.com). The
definition of integrity as “adherence to moral and ethical principles” is the most comprehensive in my
view as it covers “soundness of moral character” and “honesty”. In other words, the concepts
“soundness of moral character” and “honesty” are subsets of the concept “adherence to moral and
ethical principles”.

Transparency International
1
defines integrity in a similar way: “Behaviours and actions consistent with a
set of moral or ethical principles and standards, embraced by individuals as well as institutions, that
create a barrier to corruption.”

Integrity is permanent application of moral and ethical principles in everyday life by a person (in
personal and professional life) or an institution.



Figure 1: The position of integrity in relation to moral and ethical principles

Integrity often appears as one of ethical principles (e.g. WHO
2
, ETINED
3
).

Does integrity belong to ethical principles?
Integrity is defined as “adherence to moral and ethical principles”, so there is a logical contradiction if
integrity is considered one of ethical principles. Why?

1
The Anti-Corruption Plain Language Guide, p. 24
2
World Health Organization
3
Council of Europe, Platform on Ethics, Transparency and Integrity in Education

2.  Integrity defined as “adherence to moral and ethical principles” cannot be an individual ethical
principle as it is adherence to all moral and ethical principles.
 Integrity is based on moral and ethical principles, it “stands” above them. The position of
integrity in relation to moral and ethical principles is shown in Figure 1.
 The example below shows that one ethical principle - integrity - refers to ethical principles
themselves, i.e. there is a self-reference. Let’s have ethical principles: Integrity, Honesty, Truth,
Transparency, Respect for others, etc. And now let’s replace integrity with its definition.

Ethical principles Ethical principles
Integrity
Honesty
Truth
Transparency
Respect for others
...
Adherence to moral and ethical principles
Honesty
Truth
Transparency
Respect for others
...

From this point of view, integrity does not belong to ethical principles. It is much broader concept than a
single ethical principle.