Such leadership gurus as Warren Bennis insist that it is of first importance. We want our elected representatives to have it, and political challengers always insist that their opponents lack it. We want it in our spouses, our children, our friends. Carter wants to use this book to clarify, and explain the attractiveness of, this popular yet elusive characteristic. Carter begins his discussion like many scholars do, by pointing to the etymology of the word he is seeking to elucidate.
Integrity has something to do with wholeness, unity, or completeness.
And it is really all he gives us to go on for understanding the concept. A person of integrity is a certain sort of person. He or she is the sort of person who engages in enough moral reflection to discover and thus come to know what he should do. He feels that this is the right thing to do. And he then acts in accordance with his insight, doing so openly.