The virtue of honesty is perhaps the most obvious outgrowth of the virtue of rationality. Indeed, in notes to herself for Galt's speech, Rand refers to honesty as “only another name for rationality, the loyalty to reality, the ‘being true to truth.’” Honesty often seems integral to other virtues, such as justice and integrity, and it is probably the single most widely endorsed virtue by people of divergent views on many other aspects of morality's substantive instruction. Rand's rationale for honesty is quite distinctive, however. She advocates honesty for its service to the agent's self-interest. Most people would recoil at this, assuming that egoism frequently dictates dishonesty. Although people do, often enough, maintain that honesty is the best policy prudentially, this is usually offered as an inferior, supplemental appeal to the recalcitrant who are not convinced by “purer” arguments: “If real moral considerations won't move you, then you ought to consider this.” To understand why honesty is essential to egoism, I will proceed in the same manner as in the chapter on rationality, explaining what honesty is, why it is a virtue, and the basic kinds of practical demands that it places on us.

WHAT HONESTY IS

Honesty, in Rand's view, means that a person “must never attempt to fake reality in any manner.” Notice immediately the breadth of this conception. Usually, discussion of honesty revolves around intentional deception of others, getting another person to believe something other than the truth (or other than what one believes is the truth).