May 14, 2014
The Honor Code:
How Moral Revolutions Happen
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Professor of Philosphy, Princeton University
The Honor Code:
How Moral Revolutions Happen
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Professor of Philosphy, Princeton University
Minutes of the 30th Meeting of the 72nd Year
President Ruth Miller called to order the thirtieth meeting of the 72nd year of the Old Guard at 10:15a.m., May 14. Don Edwards led the invocation, and Michael Curtis read the minutes. One hundred six members were present.
The following members introduced their guests: Aidan Doyle: Bucky Hayes; Bill Haynes: Aileeen Haynes; Charles Rojer: Marsha Levin-Rojer; Michael Mathews: Cecelia Mathews; Harvey Rothberg: Jack Smiley.
Ed Weiss, Chair of the Membership Committee submitted the names of the following candidates for membership: Arthur M. Edelman, Paul J. Hill, David I. Rosenfeld, Eleanor V. Home, James P. Begin, Eliot Freeman, Karl F. Morrison, Victoria B. Leyton, John P. Riganati, Daniel W. Shapiro, Henry J. Powsner, Miquelon L. Weyeneth, John F. Kelsey, III, Richard L Gallaudet
All were approved by acclamation with no dissent.
In his warm introduction of Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, Henry Von Kohorn noted that Appiah’s new book, The Honor Code was listed as a pre-read for incoming Princeton freshmen by President Eisgruber. Our speaker began his second appearance before the Old Guard with compliments to all present. A distinguished scholar and prolific author who was awarded the National Humanities Medal at the White House in 2012, he admitted to having serious qualms about leaving Princeton’s faculty after twelve very happy years to accept an appointment at NYU. A slight murmur arose from some quarters of the audience.
Professor Appiah opened his discussion with the stark statement that: Honor has a lot to answer for. To amplify his thesis he provided four examples of human activity each grounded in a code of honor justified by the traditions of a certain place at a certain time, even if the practices cause nothing but revulsion in another place and time. In order of appearance the examples were: Honor killing, dueling, the binding of female infants’feet, and slavery.
The place is Pakistan. The city of Multan in the Punjab. A family of engineers and businessmen. The mother a physician. The daughter had dishonored the family by rejecting an arranged marriage and consorted with the man she loved. Her father invited her for tea, which he had drugged. She slept. He used her scarf to strangle her. At his trial he confessed and said, in tears, that it was the worst thing he had ever done. He was exonerated. The court ruled that the honor of the family justified the murder. Her father returned to business and was eventually promoted to lead the Chamber of Commerce. Another killer of his own 16 year old sister was sentenced to life in prison in Hamburg, Germany, but he told the court that if he had been tried at home in Kabul, he would have been found not guilty because she had hurt the family honor and deserved to die.
Appiah offered next a discussion of dueling as practiced in the western world until the end of the 19th Century. How did it come about and more importantly how was it abolished? Dueling was part of the honor code among the gentry who held themselves in high esteem when compared to the peasants who lived around them. To receive or even perceive an insult to one’s honor justified an invitation to duel, the law against murder not withstanding. In fact, charges were not usually filed. How did this practice endure for centuries? Simply, society accepted it as part of the prevalent honor code among the gentry and military officers. Eventually the upper classes themselves realized the unnecessary destructiveness of the practice and stopped it.
It was a common practice in China for many generations to bind the feet of infant girls forcing stunted growth and disabled adulthood. Society, especially the ruling classes accepted this infliction as part of their code of honor. With the arrival of western trade, religious missionaries and a general opening to the world, Chinese society saw the degradation inherent in their honorable tradition and it gradually disappeared. Again the Professor noted that it was the society, not the law which turned away from the practice.
Slavery ground to a philosophical halt in England even as it endured in this county until it met violent death in our civil war. Professor Appiah cited the emergence of forces on the Continent, among them the Enlightenment and the emergence of a new class of workers who demanded and found dignity in their labors. How could there be dignity if people who also labored were kept as slaves. Society forced Parliament to abolish the practice forever.
As often happens at our meetings, a question from the floor sheds a certain timely light on the presentation. So it was when President Miller asked Professor Appiah simply: What about these suicide bombers? He responded with thanks and said: Those who think the bombers are committing suicide to enjoy the delights of an Islamic paradise are wrong. They are doing so as an act of vengeance and their martyrdom is a great honor to their families.
Honor has a lot to answer for.
Respectfully submitted.
James J. Ferry
The following members introduced their guests: Aidan Doyle: Bucky Hayes; Bill Haynes: Aileeen Haynes; Charles Rojer: Marsha Levin-Rojer; Michael Mathews: Cecelia Mathews; Harvey Rothberg: Jack Smiley.
Ed Weiss, Chair of the Membership Committee submitted the names of the following candidates for membership: Arthur M. Edelman, Paul J. Hill, David I. Rosenfeld, Eleanor V. Home, James P. Begin, Eliot Freeman, Karl F. Morrison, Victoria B. Leyton, John P. Riganati, Daniel W. Shapiro, Henry J. Powsner, Miquelon L. Weyeneth, John F. Kelsey, III, Richard L Gallaudet
All were approved by acclamation with no dissent.
In his warm introduction of Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, Henry Von Kohorn noted that Appiah’s new book, The Honor Code was listed as a pre-read for incoming Princeton freshmen by President Eisgruber. Our speaker began his second appearance before the Old Guard with compliments to all present. A distinguished scholar and prolific author who was awarded the National Humanities Medal at the White House in 2012, he admitted to having serious qualms about leaving Princeton’s faculty after twelve very happy years to accept an appointment at NYU. A slight murmur arose from some quarters of the audience.
Professor Appiah opened his discussion with the stark statement that: Honor has a lot to answer for. To amplify his thesis he provided four examples of human activity each grounded in a code of honor justified by the traditions of a certain place at a certain time, even if the practices cause nothing but revulsion in another place and time. In order of appearance the examples were: Honor killing, dueling, the binding of female infants’feet, and slavery.
The place is Pakistan. The city of Multan in the Punjab. A family of engineers and businessmen. The mother a physician. The daughter had dishonored the family by rejecting an arranged marriage and consorted with the man she loved. Her father invited her for tea, which he had drugged. She slept. He used her scarf to strangle her. At his trial he confessed and said, in tears, that it was the worst thing he had ever done. He was exonerated. The court ruled that the honor of the family justified the murder. Her father returned to business and was eventually promoted to lead the Chamber of Commerce. Another killer of his own 16 year old sister was sentenced to life in prison in Hamburg, Germany, but he told the court that if he had been tried at home in Kabul, he would have been found not guilty because she had hurt the family honor and deserved to die.
Appiah offered next a discussion of dueling as practiced in the western world until the end of the 19th Century. How did it come about and more importantly how was it abolished? Dueling was part of the honor code among the gentry who held themselves in high esteem when compared to the peasants who lived around them. To receive or even perceive an insult to one’s honor justified an invitation to duel, the law against murder not withstanding. In fact, charges were not usually filed. How did this practice endure for centuries? Simply, society accepted it as part of the prevalent honor code among the gentry and military officers. Eventually the upper classes themselves realized the unnecessary destructiveness of the practice and stopped it.
It was a common practice in China for many generations to bind the feet of infant girls forcing stunted growth and disabled adulthood. Society, especially the ruling classes accepted this infliction as part of their code of honor. With the arrival of western trade, religious missionaries and a general opening to the world, Chinese society saw the degradation inherent in their honorable tradition and it gradually disappeared. Again the Professor noted that it was the society, not the law which turned away from the practice.
Slavery ground to a philosophical halt in England even as it endured in this county until it met violent death in our civil war. Professor Appiah cited the emergence of forces on the Continent, among them the Enlightenment and the emergence of a new class of workers who demanded and found dignity in their labors. How could there be dignity if people who also labored were kept as slaves. Society forced Parliament to abolish the practice forever.
As often happens at our meetings, a question from the floor sheds a certain timely light on the presentation. So it was when President Miller asked Professor Appiah simply: What about these suicide bombers? He responded with thanks and said: Those who think the bombers are committing suicide to enjoy the delights of an Islamic paradise are wrong. They are doing so as an act of vengeance and their martyrdom is a great honor to their families.
Honor has a lot to answer for.
Respectfully submitted.
James J. Ferry