Honesty Invoked in Engineer Adam Artfully Misleading Negotiation
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/58#Honesty_Invoked_in_Engineer_Adam_Artfully_Misleading_Negotiation
Properties
Instance of
Applied to
Engineering subsidiary sale negotiation with Engineer Baker
Balancing with
Faithful Agent Obligation Within Ethical Limits
Concrete expression
Engineer Adam's statement to Engineer Baker that 'another company has expressed an interest in buying our subsidiary' — when Engineer Mary had definitively declined interest — constituted an artfully misleading representation designed to obscure the truth and create false urgency in the negotiation, violating the hallmark quality of honesty required of practicing engineers
Confidence
0.93
Importance
high
Interpretation
In this context, honesty requires that Engineer Adam accurately represent the state of competing interest in the subsidiary rather than exploiting Engineer Mary's earlier — and since withdrawn — interest to create false competitive pressure; the Board finds that full disclosure of the circumstances would have changed the ethical evaluation
Invoked by
Engineer Adam Engineering Firm Sale Negotiator Engineer
Tension resolution
The honesty obligation is not overridden by the engineer's interest in moving negotiations forward; the Board finds Engineer Adam's conduct merits rebuke regardless of his commercial motivation
Source Evidence
Source text
the Board found Engineer Adam's words 'artfully misleading' or, in the words of prior BER Case 86-6, 'intentionally designed to mislead… by obscuring the truth.'
Text references
'This Board strongly believes that honesty and truthfulness are hallmark qualities of a practicing engineer.'
Engineer Adam told Engineer Baker, 'Another company has expressed an interest in buying our subsidiary, so you had better move quickly if you are interested.'
the Board found Engineer Adam's words 'artfully misleading' or, in the words of prior BER Case 86-6, 'intentionally designed to mislead… by obscuring the truth.'
TTL
@prefix case58: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/58#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case58:Honesty_Invoked_in_Engineer_Adam_Artfully_Misleading_Negotiation a proeth:Honesty,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Honesty Invoked in Engineer Adam Artfully Misleading Negotiation" ;
proeth:appliedto "Engineering subsidiary sale negotiation with Engineer Baker" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Faithful Agent Obligation Within Ethical Limits" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Engineer Adam's statement to Engineer Baker that 'another company has expressed an interest in buying our subsidiary' — when Engineer Mary had definitively declined interest — constituted an artfully misleading representation designed to obscure the truth and create false urgency in the negotiation, violating the hallmark quality of honesty required of practicing engineers" ;
proeth:confidence "0.93" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "58" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-02-25T21:56:04.012080+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "58" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-02-25T21:56:04.012080+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "In this context, honesty requires that Engineer Adam accurately represent the state of competing interest in the subsidiary rather than exploiting Engineer Mary's earlier — and since withdrawn — interest to create false competitive pressure; the Board finds that full disclosure of the circumstances would have changed the ethical evaluation" ;
proeth:invokedby "Engineer Adam Engineering Firm Sale Negotiator Engineer" ;
proeth:principleclass "Honesty" ;
proeth:sourcetext "the Board found Engineer Adam's words 'artfully misleading' or, in the words of prior BER Case 86-6, 'intentionally designed to mislead… by obscuring the truth.'" ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The honesty obligation is not overridden by the engineer's interest in moving negotiations forward; the Board finds Engineer Adam's conduct merits rebuke regardless of his commercial motivation" ;
proeth:textreferences "'This Board strongly believes that honesty and truthfulness are hallmark qualities of a practicing engineer.'",
"Engineer Adam told Engineer Baker, 'Another company has expressed an interest in buying our subsidiary, so you had better move quickly if you are interested.'",
"the Board found Engineer Adam's words 'artfully misleading' or, in the words of prior BER Case 86-6, 'intentionally designed to mislead… by obscuring the truth.'" ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 58 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-02-25T22:07:12.211499"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 58 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
58
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-02-25T21:56:04.012080+00:00
First case
58
Generated
2026-02-25T21:56:04.012080+00:00
Attributed to
Case 58 Extraction
Generated
2026-02-25T22:07:12.211499
Generated by
ProEthica Case 58 Extraction