Ethics and Trustworthiness - Semantics?

I had a friend ask me the other day as we were talking about one of the papers I had written in which I had mentioned core character traits that were important to me.  My friend thought these were so closely related as to be redundant or at best unclear in the sense of being different.  These core traits were being ethical (in behavior and thought) and being trustworthy.  Not wanting to get into a discussion of what Webster defines these I attempted to explain how I view them and I invite my readers to sound off as well.

Simply put, you cannot have one without the other.  You also need to include integrity.

The differences between being ethical and trustworthy are not just semantics.  Ethical behavior in my mind is doing the right thing in a moral and cultural context with morality having the upper hand.  Trustworthy on the on the other hand is linked to ethics in that an individual can be relied upon to do what he/she says they are going to do and that the actions fit in with the moral guidelines of society and culture.  Of course, an individual can be trusted to do bad things but he is not “trustworthy.”  Trustworthy in my opinion is a trait that an individual exhibits when he/she will safeguard my confidences, protect communal and personal property and put the interests of others before his/her own interests.

This can get deep into philosophy, which I have done on many occasions.  This also reminds me of a quote from an early mentor (Dan Rivera, 1979):  “The true measure of a man’s character is defined by what he will do when he knows he will not be held accountable for his actions.”  This quote, which I have lived with for over thirty years and more embodies ethics, trust, and integrity.  You cannot have one without the other two.