But so much of what is beautiful and valuable in the world comes from the shepherd, who has more strength and purpose than we ever imagine. - Malcolm Gladwell

What Hartshorne and May concluded, then, is that something like honesty isn’t a fundamental trait, or what they called a “unified” trait. A trait like honesty, they concluded, is considerably influenced by the situation.

The values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are.

The bottom line is that civil society simply cannot function without default to truth…I can’t converse with you, for instance, if I subject every statement that comes out of your mouth to critical scrutiny before I accept it as true. Conversation cannot proceed without default to truth.