Honesty

I have been thinking a lot recently about honesty. More specifically, I have been thinking about intellectual honesty. I wonder if often we are more honest with others than we are with ourselves.

A wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_honesty) has defined Intellectual Honesty as:

Intellectual honesty is an applied method of problem solving, characterized by an unbiased, honest attitude, which can be demonstrated in a number of different ways:

• One's personal beliefs do not interfere with the pursuit of truth;
• Relevant facts and information are not purposefully omitted even when such things may contradict one's hypothesis;
• Facts are presented in an unbiased manner, and not twisted to give misleading impressions or to support one view over another;
• References, or earlier work, are acknowledged where possible, and plagiarism is avoided.

I think we often "problem solve" and base our opinions from a place of defending what we already think. That is a flawed approach however. Like the first bullet point above says, to be intellectually honest, we must pursue truth openly without letting preconceptions interfere. Preconceptions and personal beliefs can be wrong, so the pursuit of truth must at times omit personal beliefs or biases. 

This is where I think people are often dishonest with themselves. It likely is not intentional, but a defence mechanism, because it can be uncomfortable to pursue truth. It is uncomfortable when a truth supersedes a belief. We can be held hostage by our own intellectual dishonesty. Freedom comes with truth.