Description: Honesty is our most treasured virtue. But it is eroding in many areas of society today as we are confronted with a number of honesty crises. These include the dissemination of fake news, student use of AI to cheat on assignments, the increasing prevalence of deepfake videos, religious figures plagiarizing sermon material from the Internet and AI, and online infidelity websites. Christian Miller examines this landscape of dishonesty and proposes concrete steps we can take to try to address it. Arguing that urgent action is needed, Miller's book will interest anyone concerned about the moral character of our society.
Review Quotes: "A tidal wave of fakery, hypocrisy, and cheating is eroding society's moral fiber... Miller explores the psychology and philosophy of honesty [and] calls for guardrails ranging from punishments for manipulating and disseminating individuals' images without their permission to generally promoting a culture where people (especially public figures, like celebrities) call out BS." -- Publisher's Weekly
"I do not know of a book about honesty that is more research-informed or that brings greater clarity. Even more, Christian Miller radiates a good-hearted concern for why honesty is needed in the wake of our 'honesty crisis'. This book is not just enlightening, it is deeply and personally challenging." -- John Ortberg, Teacher at BecomeNew.com and author of Steps: A Guide to Transforming Your Life When Willpower Isn't Enough"Miller is one of my favorite contemporary philosophers and this book abundantly shows why. It has sparked me to have more new thoughts, and deeper thoughts, about the important virtue of honesty than ever before. It's a must read for understanding our times and our lives. The book is a marvel. Honestly." -- Tom Morris, Author of If Aristotle Ran General Motors, Plato's Lemonade Stand, and The Oasis Within"The Honesty Crisis offers readers the chance to get clarity and insight into why honesty is such a core virtue, the concerning trends that are pushing us away from the virtue, and what you and I can do to help it recover." -- Meghan Sullivan, Founding Director of the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good; Director of the Ethics Initiative; Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame"Christian Miller provides a crisp analysis of the many faces of dishonesty in modern life, from cheating to lying and fakery, so that we can confront them wisely and effectively. An honest book for dishonest times." -- Barry Lam, Professor of Philosophy, University of California Riverside; author of Fewer Rules, Better People: The Case for Discretion; host of Slate's Hi-Phi Nation podcast"A remarkably readable book on the critically important topic of honesty. Miller makes a compelling case that we are in an honest crisis, that it is getting worse, and it has disastrous consequences. I especially appreciated the examples illustrating nearly every important point. The Honesty Crisis helped clarify my thinking about the ethics of honesty, deception, and cheating." -- Timothy R. Levine, Professor of Communication, University of Oklahoma, author of Duped: Truth-default Theory and the Social Science of Lying and Deception