“Take Honor from me, and my life is done” – A review of The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen by Kwame Anthony Appiah
 

Different people have different definitions and interpretations of what a revolution is. Looking up the word on Wikipedia, I see it defined as a drastic political or social change that usually occurs relatively quickly. I think that’s as good a definition as any. The concept of revolution, especially in politics and revolution, is embedded in most educated people’s knowledge of human history. Countless books have been devoted to examining political and economic revolutions over time. Every year in the United States many books are written and many reenactments staged to commemorate the political revolution of the late 18^th century that saw British monarchical rule terminated and a new sort of representative democracy established in what will become the United States. The American Revolution has been almost studied to death but every year some other scholar, or politician with a historical bent, manages to release one more book that promises a new twist on some obscure aspect of the whole saga. Same goes for the French revolution of 1789, which had a collateral effect of sending King Louis XVI to the guillotine. Revolutions in the economic / business sphere have also being studied and published about extensively. We all learn and talk about the historical significance and causes of the Industrial Revolution that started in Great Britain in the late 18^th century and spread across Europe and North America in the decades of the first half of the 19^th century. In more recent times we have all gotten used to speaking of the information / internet revolution that has swept the world since the early 1990’s with the commercialization of the internet and invention of the World Wide Web. Given the fascination with revolution in many parts of our lives, it is somewhat baffling that the concept of “moral revolutions” is not more central to our every-day vocabulary and historical consciousness. I think it is the absence of robust everyday discussion of the significance of, and requirements for, moral revolutions that this excellent book by the noted philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah is ideally placed to fill.

 

Why is the examination of honor important to understanding not just moral revolutions but human existence? I would say it is because honor is so central to human life. Most people desire, consciously or otherwise, to be regarded as honorable and not to have their honor diminished or maligned. This is something the great bard William Shakespeare realized and acknowledged when in the play Richard II he placed in the mouth of Thomas de Mowbray, the banished Duke of Norfolk, the following words “Mine honor is my life; both grow in one: Take honor from me, and my life is done: Then, dear my liege, mine honor let me try; In that I live and for that will I die”. There is nothing inherently wrong or right about the human sense of honor, it is just there in us. There are many times when the honor codes of individuals or particular societies are very congruent with what we can all agree to be morally upright or beneficial to society (e.g., ensuring protection for vulnerable children, selflessly working to free people stuck in burning buildings etc.). However, there are many situations when the honor codes conflict with what will be broadly accepted as being morally just and beneficial to society. A good contemporary example of this situation is the practice of “honor killing” of women by members of their own family in response to some behavior that they perceive to have brought disrepute to the family. Mr. Appiah’s book helps readers understand the factors that sustain such evidently harmful honor practices and the factors that were responsible for their decline (in cases where such practices are thankfully no more).

 

The author does a great job of explaining this phenomenon of harmful honor practices and the process of fomenting the moral revolutions that can end them by giving an excellent historical summary of three situations when morally repugnant honor practices were successfully ended. These include: the decline of the duel in 19^th century England; the move to stop the binding of the feet of young girls in turn-of-the-20^th century China and the movement in England in the first half of the 19^th century to abolish the transatlantic slave trade. The author also spends a good deal of time examining the unfortunate durability and the valiant efforts being made to eradicate the existing practice of honor killing.

 

Of the thankfully defunct practices that the author profiled, I found the history and practice of dueling to be the most interesting for a variety of reasons. Dueling was a colossal waste of human talent as the practice claimed the lives of many aristocratic men of means at the prime of their lives. A good example was the death of Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury Secretary of the US, at a duel at the age of 47. Also, for most of the time that dueling was practiced across Europe it remained an unambiguously illegal activity that was frowned upon by governments and civil leaders. And these leaders had a good reason to be against dueling. European monarchs and civil servants had worked diligently over many centuries to establish the concept of a state as one in which the sovereign / government held a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force and by so doing managed to drag Europe out of the fractious lawlessness that pervaded the continent in the dark ages. The quasi-execution aspect of duels flew against the monopoly power of the state to render judgment and deliver capital punishment. It was bad enough that this practice was illegal, it was also widely viewed as immoral by many. The practice was fundamentally immoral. It is reasonable to view a moral outcome as one in which the quest for truth is successful and the perpetrator of a lie or some other form of bad behavior is brought to justice. Given the varying quality of dueling pistols and differences in the quality of duelers’ marksmanship, this outcome was far from assured. A better marksman is much more likely to prevail in a duel than a bad marksman is, even if the great shot was the perpetrator of an offence. So let’s think about this: you impugn the honor of another man who then feels duty-bound to challenge you to a duel unless you do the honorable thing by apologizing for your statement or act. You refuse to apologize and you then show up on the day of the duel and because you are a better marksman you shoot him dead in broad daylight and you end up paying no price because there is a gentleman’s agreement that dueling gentlemen are not prosecuted for murder. By the way, all the religious authorities are also vehemently against this activity. In a nutshell, the practice made absolutely no sense. So why did all these educated upper class men keep participating in such a senseless activity? It’s simple, they thought dueling was necessary for them to defend and maintain their honor. If you went back and really quizzed some upper class type in early 19^th century England about his support for dueling you would probably not get a better answer than “this is what we do”.


So how did the duel fall out of favor in Victorian England? It was not because people pointed out to potential duelers that the practice was illegal, there were already well aware of the fact. The practice didn’t all of a sudden become immoral, it had always being immoral! What happened was that opponents of the duel worked within the confines of the honor code to redefine what honorable conduct meant for a gentleman such that it actually became dishonorable for an aristocrat to participate in a duel. A similar strategy was adopted by the brave members of the Chinese intelligentsia that formed the core of the resistance against foot binding. These people had a deep appreciation for the honor traditions of their society and took great pains not to impugn the honor code of the society. Rather, they succeeded in redefining the honor code such that it became a dishonorable thing to bind your daughters’ feet. These Chinese reformers couched their opposition to foot binding in terms of the honor of China (e.g., “this practice is making our country look bad in the world”, “all modern societies no longer do this” etc.).

 

These moral revolutions hold great promise for some of the moral challenges that confront us in the 21^st century, including the scourge of violence against women. If humanity will successfully beat back honor killings and other acts of violence against women, the movements will need to be led by local groups of committed people who live in the affected societies and have a deep appreciation for the culture of their people. Reformers are unlikely to meet with great success if they simply dismiss the honor codes of these societies as atavistic behavior. Rather they will need to work within the confines of their cultures to redefine what honor means and have the protection of the dignity and physically wellbeing of their wives, daughters and sisters be the highest consideration for the honor of the members of her family.

 

Overall, I found it to be a great and accessible book that should be read by politicians, social activists and anyone with an interest in seeing positive change in their society and the world at large. It also gives the lie to the view, held by some, that philosophers hardly write books with tangible real world practical value.