[lit-ideas] Guard Thy Honor
- From: jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 10:24:30 -0500
On whether honor is rational
L. K. Helm, retrieving from his deep knowledge of things Western-classical
writes:
"There is almost never just one reason for an important act like going to the
aid of the Epidamnus aristocrats. Agreeing with the aristocrats was one
reason and it was a legitimate reason. It just wasn't the only reason, and
it is one of the other reasons that provoked the Corcyraeans."
and titles the thing,
"Whether Honor Is Rational"
Indeed, the question often arises. I once made that inquiry to some
Anglo-Saxonists, and was disappointed to learn that whatever word they had for
honor in England pre-1066 it has not survived.
I once did some intensive study of Spanish golden age drama: Calderon de la
Barca, etc. The interesting but also boring thing about these plays is that
they all resolve around a sentimental triangle, involving the honor of a woman.
Where
honor =df. chastity
So a dishonoured woman can be one that has been raped, or who has engaged in
´conversation´before the vow of marriage, etc.
The fact about honour is universal, even among more primitive societies, and in
some Eastern societies, woman to be thus dishonoured are just mercilessly
killed.
The effect on the observant of such behaviour may be various. Some would
conclude that, not only honor is not rational (or reasonable, if we must) but
that it is in fact an empy notion, not dissimilar from what David Hume thought
´substance´is. In Spain, due to the influence of existentialism and
phenomenology, some authors (notably Castro) have attempted an ontological
approach to honor, where it is seen as the becoming of Being. It did not
convince me. I don´t want to say that there is no such thing as honour but that
it may be different for males and females.
In this British parody, ¨The Happiest Days of your life¨, with Rutherford, the
girls are temporarily placed in a boys school, and vice versa. In a boys
college, the motto makes perfect sense, in a girls college it retrieves scorn
from the School supervisor. The motto is:
Guard thy honour
(I always felt the motto was invented for the sake of a good punch line but
wonder whose families in England did bear mottos featuring honor or honour)
Cheers,
J. L. Speranza
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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