Honesty Principle Applied to Engineer A's Selective Presentation
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/94#Honesty_Principle_Applied_to_Engineer_As_Selective_Presentation
Properties
Instance of
Applied to
Engineer A's presentation to the City Planning Board
Balancing with
Faithful Agent Obligation Within Ethical Limits
Relevance and Pertinence Standard for Voluntary Disclosure at Public Hearings
Concrete expression
Engineer A presents the environmental benefits of the waterfront conversion truthfully but does not volunteer known adverse impacts (traffic, noise, air pollution), raising the question of whether selective truthfulness — presenting genuine positives while omitting known negatives — constitutes a form of misleading conduct inconsistent with the honesty principle.
Confidence
0.89
Importance
high
Interpretation
The honesty principle is satisfied in this case because Engineer A's statements are factually accurate (the environmental benefits are genuine), Engineer A did not make false representations, and Engineer A was prepared to answer truthfully if questioned. Selective emphasis on favorable factors, without active misrepresentation, does not violate the honesty principle when the hearing process provides a mechanism for adverse information to be supplied by other parties.
Invoked by
Engineer A Public Hearing Presenting Consulting Engineer
Tension resolution
Honesty requires non-deception, not exhaustive volunteering of all adverse information; Engineer A's presentation was honest in that it did not contain false statements, and the engineer's readiness to answer questions truthfully demonstrates good faith compliance with the honesty principle.
Source Evidence
Source text
Engineer A highlights the improved environmental effect of converting the waterfront from an industrial facility to a parkland.
Text references
Engineer A highlights the improved environmental effect of converting the waterfront from an industrial facility to a parkland.
Engineer A is aware of these factors, but was not specifically questioned on these factors and does not volunteer this fact.
Had Engineer A been questioned by the City Planning Board, Engineer A would have provided testimony concerning these issues.
TTL
@prefix case94: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/94#> .
@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#> .
case94:Honesty_Principle_Applied_to_Engineer_As_Selective_Presentation a proeth:Honesty,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Honesty Principle Applied to Engineer A's Selective Presentation" ;
proeth:appliedto "Engineer A's presentation to the City Planning Board" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Faithful Agent Obligation Within Ethical Limits",
"Relevance and Pertinence Standard for Voluntary Disclosure at Public Hearings" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Engineer A presents the environmental benefits of the waterfront conversion truthfully but does not volunteer known adverse impacts (traffic, noise, air pollution), raising the question of whether selective truthfulness — presenting genuine positives while omitting known negatives — constitutes a form of misleading conduct inconsistent with the honesty principle." ;
proeth:confidence "0.89" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "94" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "facts" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-02-28T18:53:14.971881+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "94" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-02-28T18:53:14.971881+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "The honesty principle is satisfied in this case because Engineer A's statements are factually accurate (the environmental benefits are genuine), Engineer A did not make false representations, and Engineer A was prepared to answer truthfully if questioned. Selective emphasis on favorable factors, without active misrepresentation, does not violate the honesty principle when the hearing process provides a mechanism for adverse information to be supplied by other parties." ;
proeth:invokedby "Engineer A Public Hearing Presenting Consulting Engineer" ;
proeth:principleclass "Honesty" ;
proeth:sourcetext "Engineer A highlights the improved environmental effect of converting the waterfront from an industrial facility to a parkland." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "Honesty requires non-deception, not exhaustive volunteering of all adverse information; Engineer A's presentation was honest in that it did not contain false statements, and the engineer's readiness to answer questions truthfully demonstrates good faith compliance with the honesty principle." ;
proeth:textreferences "Engineer A highlights the improved environmental effect of converting the waterfront from an industrial facility to a parkland.",
"Engineer A is aware of these factors, but was not specifically questioned on these factors and does not volunteer this fact.",
"Had Engineer A been questioned by the City Planning Board, Engineer A would have provided testimony concerning these issues." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 94 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-02-28T19:13:05.762056"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 94 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
94
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
facts
First discovered
2026-02-28T18:53:14.971881+00:00
First case
94
Generated
2026-02-28T18:53:14.971881+00:00
Attributed to
Case 94 Extraction
Generated
2026-02-28T19:13:05.762056
Generated by
ProEthica Case 94 Extraction