One of the guests on the World Service programme Forum on Sunday was Kwame Anthony Appiah who has looked into questions of honour, something which resonates in this country today mainly because of 'so-called' honour killings.
Honour is odd because it can make otherwise sane, healthy & law abiding people do things even when they are against the law. The Duke of Wellington, for example, fought a duel in 1829. He was prime minister at the time.
And yet the requirements of honour can suddenly change - over a period of about 20 years - so that the act or conduct which once seemed co compelling is shunned by all.
Other examples quoted by Appiah were footbinding & the Atlantic slave trade.
So the question is not just 'What is honour' but how can it be changed. Can it be nudged?
It seems to have much in common with fashion in dress, only changing at a much slower rate - Wellington was ignoring a law first passed over two centuries earlier by Elizabeth I.
Honour must also have a complicated relationship to pride, embarrassment, revulsion & humiliation.
Honour is odd because it can make otherwise sane, healthy & law abiding people do things even when they are against the law. The Duke of Wellington, for example, fought a duel in 1829. He was prime minister at the time.
And yet the requirements of honour can suddenly change - over a period of about 20 years - so that the act or conduct which once seemed co compelling is shunned by all.
Other examples quoted by Appiah were footbinding & the Atlantic slave trade.
So the question is not just 'What is honour' but how can it be changed. Can it be nudged?
It seems to have much in common with fashion in dress, only changing at a much slower rate - Wellington was ignoring a law first passed over two centuries earlier by Elizabeth I.
Honour must also have a complicated relationship to pride, embarrassment, revulsion & humiliation.
Links
The Forum 14/11/2010
Kwame Anthony Appiah
The Honor Code
The Duke of Wellington and King's College London
The Forum 14/11/2010
Kwame Anthony Appiah
The Honor Code
The Duke of Wellington and King's College London
