Portraits of Integrity: 26 Case Studies from History, Literature and Philosophy

by Charlotte Alston (Editor), Amber Carpenter (Editor), Rachael Wiseman (Editor)

Overview

Portraits of Integrity depicts more than 20 historical, fictional and contemporary figures whose character or life raises questions about what integrity is and how it is perceived.

Integrity might be culturally bound, but this diverse set of portraits demonstrates that it is not the special preserve of any one culture. Portraits of Socrates, Mencius, Rama and Job, alongside the aspirational 16th-century couple John and Dorothy Kaye, civil rights activist Ella Baker and an anonymous banker, highlight the persisting – sometimes conflicting – features of a life lived with integrity. An introduction identifies and discusses the key questions and themes raised by the case studies, encouraging the reader to determine for themselves the weight and significance of the recurring topics integrity brings up - truth, awkwardness, goodness, and charisma.

For anyone looking to learn more about this elusive virtue, Portraits of Integrity is an essential collection. It uncovers the manifold aspects of integrity, illustrates the various possibilities for its expression in a life and asks whether living a life of integrity means living a life of isolation and hardship, or if it is possible to live with integrity without jeopardising all else.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350040380
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/16/2020
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.57(w) x 8.53(h) x 0.91(d)

About the Author

Charlotte Alston is Professor in History in the Department of Humanities at Northumbria University, UK.

Amber Carpenter is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS, Singapore.

Rachael Wiseman is Lecturer in Philosophy at University of Liverpool, UK.

Table of Contents

List of figures viii

Notes on contributors ix

Introduction 1

1 Plato's Socrates: The oddness of the integrated soul Amber D. Carpenter 15

2 Boethius: Integrity as attunement to reality Matthew Maguire 27

3 Rama: The imperfections of the perfect man in the Valmiki Ramayana Emily T. Hudson 35

4 Antigone: Staging integrity through sorority Valentina Moro 45

5 Job: 'And still he holdeth fast his integrity' Katharine J. Dell 53

6 Ella Baker: Leading with integrity in the service of a cause Robin Zheng 63

7 'Albert': Transformational agency and integrity in the workplace Lisa Herzog 73

8 Huang Zongxi: Making it safe not to be servile Sandra Leonie Field 83

9 Lambert Strether: 'What plays you least false' in a life with others Danielle Petherbridge 93

10 Confucius' village worthies: Hypocrites as thieves of virtue Winnie Sung 101

11 G. E. M. Anscombe: The false hypocrisy of the ideal standard Rachael Wiseman 111

12 Mohandas Gandhi: 'My life is its own message' Stefan Rossbach 121

13 Tolstoy and the Tolstoyans: Facing life as a whole Charlotte Alston 131

14 Simone Weil: Against being true to yourself D. K. Levy 141

15 Guan Yu: 'Righteousness that is not righteousness' in the Romance of The Three Kingdoms Bryan W. Van Norden 151

16 Gerrard Winstanley: Radicalism and the struggle for integrity during the English Revolution David Loewenstein 163

17 Amadou Bamba: Integrity and the struggle for spiritual cultivation Alexus McLeod 173

18 Abai Kunanbayev: Integrity and the law in nineteenth-century Kazakh society Tenlik Dalayeva 183

19 Amrita Sher-Gil: Identity and integrity as a mixed-race woman artist in colonial India Nalini Bhushan 195

20 Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann and Georg Waitz: Two models of scholarly integrity Herman Paul 207

21 Hannah Arendt: Integrity, truth and the political realm Alexander Beaumont 217

22 Anansi the Spider: Individual trickery and communal integrity Stephen L. Bishop 227

23 The Cookes and the Kayes: Assertions of virtue among the 'middling sort' in post-Reformation England Robert Tittler 235

24 Titus Pomponius Atticus: Writing the life of an uncommonly honourable Roman Linda McGuire 249

25 Henryk Sienkiewicz's Letters from America: Creating a speaker with integrity Anja Burghardt 259

26 Virginia Woolf: 'Writing without hate, without bitterness, without fear, without protest, without preaching': Integrity and the woman writer in A Room of One's Own Lorraine Sim 271

Afterword 281

Index 286

Editorial Reviews

A wide-ranging, thought-provoking collection that examines the various aspects and challenges of living with integrity. These short essays challenge us to move beyond thinking of integrity simply as unbending devotion to a principle or being true to oneself.” —Matthew Pianalto, Professor in the Department of History, Philosophy and Religious Studies, Eastern Kentucky University, USA

“Integrity is the most personal of virtues and yet the more philosophers try to define it, the more elusive it comes to seem. Here is a work that goes directly to the source: to the very struggle to live with integrity as it is encountered throughout the world and throughout history. From scholars and artists, reformers and jourbanalists, and in great narratives such as the Rāmāyaṇa, the portraits in this book are unfailingly enlightening and engaging. It is a moving and inspiring collection that unveils both the complexity and necessity of integrity.” —Damian Cox, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia

“Rather than providing yet another philosophical account, the editors are to be commended for offering a rich tapestry of lives and works that touch on the concept of integrity in different ways. Their novel approach is highly recommended!” —Christian B. Miller, A. C. Reid Professor of Philosophy, Wake Forest University, USA

From the Publisher