I bumped into someone this week who used to work with Professor Tim Brighouse.
Tim Brighouse has been a major influence upon how I attempt to go about my own work – so it was great to meet someone (a service Director in Birmingham City Council) who worked very closely with the man himself.
I asked the person what made Tim Brighouse special – the answer – he said – was easy – “honesty”.
“Tim never avoided the truth” – even if that truth was very uncomfortable.
On reflection I think I sometimes avoid the truth – particularly when attempting to avoid hurting someone’s feelings. The problem with this strategy is that it’s more than likely that you will have to return to that truth at a later date – but are compromised by the fact that you didn’t tackle the matter at the outset.
In the next year I’m going to try to “never avoid the truth” – I wonder how things will go??
An interesting experiment! It reminded me of Socrates’ triple filter idea…
http://www.tidings.org/minutes/minute200309.htm
Lee
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