Integrity as Transformative

How might the virtue of integrity contribute to a process of personal transformation? While philosophers such as Bernard Williams and Cheshire Calhoun have investigated the nature of this important virtue, the issue of how this virtue may play a transformative role has been underexplored. This chapter will draw on this existing work about what integrity is to investigate how individuals may transform themselves through the pursuit of integrity. I will argue that a concern with integrity can play a transformational role in the lives of individuals. I will begin by outlining the existing work on integrity, starting with Bernard Williams’s influential work on the topic. I will then explore three existing attempts to make sense of the nature of integrity: The Identity View, The Integrated Self View, and the Standing for Something View. In the final section, I will argue that whichever of these broad approaches to integrity we accept, a concern with integrity can play an important role in transforming individuals. A concern with integrity can be deeply transformative, as it can call on us to profoundly reshape our ideals, our lives, or both. In addition, the social conditions that we live in and how people respond to us can have a major impact on our ability to live with integrity. Finally, paying close attention to the non-ideal circumstances that people live in can help to transform how we think about the nature of integrity.