Honor as a Moral Category (original) (raw)
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Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2013
Honor is implicated in a variety of social psychological processes, including morality, male violence, sexuality and gender, in-group identification, responses to devaluation, and biculturalism. The papers in this Special Issue illustrate the importance of honor in these and other social-psychological processes. In addition, these papers expand and deepen our understanding of honor by presenting research on honor in a diverse array of groups (e.g., the military, law enforcement), relationship contexts (e.g., family relations, romantic relations) and countries (e.g.,
Contemporary Political Theory
Modern honor appears to be distinguished by two contradictory impulses, a neglect or even disdain of honor, and an ambition to elevate and promote it as dignity, self-esteem and recognition. The article argues that these tensions can be traced to a foundational difference regarding the political importance of the passion of honor, evident in the seminal and contending formulations by Machiavelli and Hobbes. In recovering and articulating the bases of these competing modern conceptions of honor and tracing the influence of their divergent trajectories, the article seeks to show the importance of honor for understanding contemporary politics.
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 2015
Western philosophers have generally neglected honor as a moral phenomenon worthy of serious study. Appiah's recent work on honor in moral revolutions is an important exception, but even he is careful to separate honor from morality, regarding it as only Ban allyô f morality. In this paper we take Appiah to be right about the psychological, social, and historical role honor has played in three notable moral revolutions, but wrong about the moral nature of honor. We defend two new theses: First, honor is an emotional and moral form of recognition respect that can hinder or aid moral progress. Second, honor, so conceived, can play a rational role in progressive moral change, as it did among the working class in the British abolition of slave trade, when the pressure of moral consistency moved them to protest American slavery as an affront to their honor without change in their moral belief that slavery is wrong. Keywords Honor. Respect. Morality. Moral judgment. Moral progress. Hybrid theory. Consistency reasoning Until recently, honor has been neglected among Western moral philosophers, perhaps because it connotes old fashioned or regressive values associated with status in a stratified social structure. We contend, however, that honor is an integral part of morality and can be an engine of rational and progressive moral change. On the view we defend, to be honorable is to merit feelings of moral respect in virtue of one's social identity. Though honor often fails to achieve the liberal ideal of full and equal respect for all persons (cf. Krause 2002; Cunningham 2013), changes and expansions in the scope of honor can drive moral progress. To develop our view of honor we draw on Kwame Anthony Appiah's recent book The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen. Appiah's historically important examples of moral revolutions include the disappearance of honor dueling among the aristocracy in nineteenth-century England, the eventual success early in the last century of the long campaign Ethic Theory Moral Prac
DEFINING HONOR. A LOOK AT MODERN LEXICOGRAPHICAL WORKS
This article outlines the origins of the word " honor " in Western Civilization, and the definitions given to it in the first modern lexicographical works. The study is limited to major European languages: English, French, German, and Italian. Polish tradition is also included because of the similar spelling, and similar meanings that can be found in given examples. The history of the term-and-concept " honor " reaches at least Ancient Roman tradition and lasts until contemporary times. The conclusion of this analysis is that the existence of the word " honor " in Western Civilization for over two thousand years reveals its culture-forming importance. It is not only because of the huge importance it was given by some of the most prominent Western thinkers. Another reason why the term-and-concept of " honor " is important nowadays is its importance in understanding the phenomenon of modern terrorism.
Review of Honor in the Modern World: Interdisciplinary Perspectives.
Rev. of Honor in the Modern World: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. By Laurie M. Johnson and Dan Demetrious, 2020
This is a review of a book on Honor in the Modern World: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. By Laurie M. Johnson and Dan Demetriou. The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms. 25 February 2020 (online).