Honor in Political and Moral Philosophy

By Peter Olsthoorn

Subjects: Political Philosophy, Ethics, History Of Philosophy
Paperback : 9781438455464, 224 pages, January 2016
Hardcover : 9781438455471, 224 pages, February 2015

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Table of contents

Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Honor as a Social motive
2. Democratic Honor and the Quiet Virtues
3. Defining the Honor Group: Loyalty and Distance
4. Internalizing Honor: Integrity
5. Denying Honor: Respect and Humiliation
Conclusion
Notes
References
Index

Argues for revitalizing the place of honor in contemporary life.

Description

In this history of the development of ideas of honor in Western philosophy, Peter Olsthoorn examines what honor is, how its meaning has changed, and whether it can still be of use. Political and moral philosophers from Cicero to John Stuart Mill thought that a sense of honor and concern for our reputation could help us to determine the proper thing to do, and just as important, provide us with the much-needed motive to do it. Today, outside of the military and some other pockets of resistance, the notion of honor has become seriously out of date, while the term itself has almost disappeared from our moral language. Most of us think that people ought to do what is right based on a love for jus-tice rather than from a concern with how we are perceived by others. Wide-ranging and accessible, the book explores the role of honor in not only philosophy but also literature and war to make the case that honor can still play an important role in contemporary life.

Peter Olsthoorn is Assistant Professor at Netherlands Defense Academy and author of Military Ethics and Virtues: An Interdisciplinary Approach for the 21st Century.

Reviews

"…a timely philosophical examination of honor." — CHOICE