On Wednesday evening, I had the pleasure of facilitation a discussion between nearly 25 high school students who had just listened to Anthony Appiah's lecture on "Honor Code." I have to say, I was really impressed by the astuteness these students showed, and the level of thinking they engaged in. During our conversations they raised some very interesting points. Ones that I knew I had to bring up in this ethics class.
1) The first of this point deals with the relation between "The Moral" and "Honor". This topic was already slightly discussed in class, but I would like to give everyone a chance to expand a bit more on it. Even if you were unable to attend the lecture, I would love to hear where you personally fall under this matter. How, if at all, do you think the 2 mesh together?
2) Do you view Honor as an entity like “Reason” or as “reason?” Meaning is there one honor that guides us all? One Honor that is the same for ALL ofus?More than that, what I really want to know is whether there is only “one type” of honor. Professor Appiah, during his lecture, used the example the honor code in our school, and finding it difficult to turn your friends in when you know they’ve breached that honor code. Let us use this same example to dissect this question.
I assume we all believe it is honorable to follow our school’s Honor code. But would you all agree that there is Honor in friendship? That is, it is honorable to be good and LOYAL to your friends? If so, are these two honor codes different (honor to your school Vs. honor to your friends)? Or is it only one Honor Code guiding our action in each situation? In either case, how do you suppose we reconcile the two? How is one supposed to decide whether to be more loyal to his friend or to his school? Feel free to explain this using any of the philosophers we’ve covered so far in class. For example what would stoics say to this? What would Plato, or Mr. Appiah himself say? If you find you do not agree with any of these philosophers and their views, how would YOU reconcile the two?
I am really looking forward to reading your comments!!
You posed a lot of questions that require really involved answers, so I'm just going to respond to your first question. Throughout the lecture, I wanted Dr. Appiah to make the connection between honor and morality, or at least acknowledge that there could be one. He did not, but I still believe that honor, and acting honorable, intrinsically has a moral value. Although I understand his use of motivation and esteem as an impetus to honor, it seems to me that instead of a preexisting moral argument that honor changes, there is really a preexisting honor code that new moral arguments challenge. I also had some issues with the importance placed on the necessity of a person wanting to feel worthy of the respect accorded to a member of their honor code as a motivation to act in accordance with the honor code of your group. This relates to his discussion of condescension and impudence, and that the desire to act correctly within your honor code comes from your concern for the way others regard you. I thought this argument seemed to portray honor as the product of selfishness and caring more about what other people think about you than what is the morally right action. This obviously goes back to my fundamental problem about morality and honor – that they are connected, which I think provides more depth and value to honor than societal perceptions. I think that honor, and especially in its connectedness to morality, is more personal than societal, and to make honor a product of overly influential societal norms seems to cheapen that ideal rather than embolden it.
ReplyDeleteNelli, great post. Like Jane said, you have asked a lot of questions so I am going to answer the last question you posted about the Rhodes specific honor code. I think that you are right in saying that there is honor in friendship and thus, we as each others friends and colleagues should respect each other in such a way that it corresponds with the Rhodes honor code. However, I do think there is a difference between honoring your friends and honoring the honor code. I think the code holds a much stronger punishment if the code was to be violated and holds much more prestige in world of Rhodes College. However, I think you are on to something though in saying that the two different types of "honor" are connected.
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