What Is Honor?

I was listening to a podcast recently, where the guest related that his father had once told him, “I don’t care if you have wealth or professional success. I care if you have honor.” What is honor, such that it could make sense for a parent to cite it as the sole or primary thing he wants for his child?

1. Examples

The best way to start analyzing anything is to look for examples. A variety of things elicit intuitions about honor or dishonor.

a. Footrace

First, an example of honorable behavior. This happened in 2012. The first place runner in a footrace was confused about where the finish line was and stopped short of it. The second place runner could have taken advantage of the mistake to pass him and claim the first place. Instead, he pointed out the correct finish line to the first runner, then ran behind him until he crossed. When asked why he did this, the 2nd place runner explained, “He was the rightful winner. He created a gap that I could not have closed if he had not made a mistake.” (I learned of this example from a talk by Dan Demetriou, who has written a lot about honor.)

b. Piet Retief Massacre

This happened in 1838 in South Africa. Dutch settlers (led by Piet Retief) wanted to make peace with the Zulu living in the area. The Zulu required that the Dutch retrieve some cattle that had been stolen by another tribe. The Dutch settlers retrieved about 700 cattle from the other tribe and returned them to the Zulu. They then signed a treaty with the Zulu, granting the Dutch a certain amount of land to live on.

A few days later, the Zulu king invited the Dutch to a feast in their honor, but the Dutch had to leave their weapons outside. They did this, then ate and drank with the Zulu. Then the Zulu king started chanting, “Kill the wizards.” The Zulu fell upon the Dutch and massacred them.

This must be among the most dishonorable things that has ever happened.

c. Judas

Another famous case is Judas’ act of betraying Jesus in exchange for 30 pieces of silver.

Which is more dishonorable, example (b) or (c)? (c) might be deemed more dishonorable because Judas was a friend and follower of Jesus and because he did it solely for material ...