Summary Of Kwame Appiah's The Honor Code

Webster’s dictionary defines Honor as high respect, good reputation or high moral standards of behavior. Kwame Appiah in his book The Honor Code: How moral revolutions happen believes that honor is tied to the ethical emotions (particularly to pride, shame, and disdain), to one’s social identity, to the value of nationalism and group unity, and to moral motivation in general. He argues that honor is “a system of entitlements to respect,” Two forms of honor exist and these relate to two forms of respect. A person is worthy of “competitive” honor when they merit respect for excelling relative to some honor code. A person is praiseworthy of “peer honor” when they merit respect, not because they meet certain standard, but on the basis of a recognition of an equal status. Achilles fought for competitive honor, (176) whereas the Duke of Wellington and the Earl of Winchilsea dueled, because of

their shared status (Honor peers). He also believes that moral revolutions has been caused by sense of honor and that morality keeps you aligned with honor.
Appiah uses three historical examples to demonstrate how honor can be positive.

First, the collapse of the duel in late 18th century. The duel died when the existence of aristocrats and gentlemen began to diminish, and new government flourished along with more middle class regime (48). Secondly, the end of foot binding was brought by shame. Christian missionaries who formed anti binding societies, and joined literati. They brought understanding that the practice was a disrespect to the whole country, its civilization and the rest of the world (87). The third is the end of Atlantic slavery, which was abolished because of shame and national honor (113, 114). “National honor reemerged as a theme during the second phase of the British anti-slavery movement” (115). Slavery was eradicated, in the British Empire, when evangelists and reformers stood and convinced the working class to believe that slavery symbolized the shame of labor and therefore stood for their own disrespect. The new working class needed “to live with an image of themselves that allowed them to to self-respect”

(134).

The practice of honor killing is one of the negative examples of honor. The practice is “most often carried out against women” (167). Appiah gives us several example of these. Samia Sarwar was Pakistani woman who was killed by her family. Sarwar was unhappy and mistreated in her marriage, with permission of her parents she separated from her husband. When Samar asked for a divorced she was shunned and later killed, because of her family’s honor. (147-150). Her family was not accused since they kept the family honor. Another case was that of Safia Bibi, a blind maid who was raped by her employer’s son and became pregnant. Safia was ordered to receive 30 lashes “out of compassion” (159). Only because the case became an outcry, it was reviewed and reversed. The aggressor however was cleared under Sharia standard, since he could not be identified. This type of honor becomes destructive to society, especially when honor does not align with morality. Appiah adds :
“Violence against women is a pervasive problem across the globe. Honor killing is one of its many modes. But reforming honor is relevant, I believe, to every form of gendered violence; and in particular, every society needs to sustain codes in which assaulting a woman-assaulting anyone-in your own family is a source of dishonor, a cause of shame”9(169)
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