When I say honor, what I mean is the idea of every individual being called to answer to everyone else. You know, the kind of thing you see from the Klingons. “You are thirty and unmarried, you bring dishonor to us” or “shame on your family for eternity because you were arrested for terrorism” or “what a disgrace you are for not having the skillset of your parents”. This goes deeper than that though, sometimes it’s more subtle, for example you might run into old classmates and all they want to know is how your brother is doing, or people keep telling you that you should live up to your sister or they might put you in some kind of shadow.
People who defend honor will often say “it is the masses who have spoken, enough said” but do you consider this self-explanatory and why? Because I have many questions sometimes that get no answer that seem to undermine the very justification of honor, for example… what defines a member of an honor culture, is the internet seen as a valid method of manifesting an honor culture, does an honor culture that faces a schism and breaks off from another become a dishonorable honor culture or equally valid, who was the first person to believe in certain ideas from which the honor culture got its conclusions, how did said person justify their ideas, is it dishonorable to find loopholes in the rules of the honor culture, are you dishonored if you save the life of someone who is seppukuing, what if this person happens to be the emperor, etc.
Honor means a lot of different things. And it has been used to commit so many different crimes against minorities.
I think nowadays in the western culture it means individual honor. It means to be trustworthy and to stand by your word. By the classic saying: “A gentleman can settle the bill later”.
The way late stage capitalism goes, honor culture will be left behind. Where every individual is reduced to a number, the concept is disappearing. You pay first before pumping gas. And the only time your wow matters is in the court when you say you won’t lie.
imo honor is roughly a synonym for integrity.
yet integrity means different things to different people.
and people also mistake honor and pride.
The mere fact that you felt you needed to explain and define it should be proof that the answer is no.
Slave traders were honored guests in lords’ palaces.
Honor is a social construct which is used to promote “pro-social” behavior. It can be useful in the absence of or in concert with other systems of social control (e.g. laws, religion). Of course, “pro-social” is very much a construct of what the creating society considers to be positive. This can include acting in ways which we, in our current social constructs, would consider “anti-social”. Honor ends up getting idolized in media because it often includes an element of self-discipline and self-sacrifice and is usually associated with warrior cultures. Though, it also tends to be conservative and resist changing as social mores change. This has led to some famous consequences as honor based systems tried to cling to social constructs which were no longer tenable. For example, the Satsuma Rebellion saw the existing feudal class seek to maintain it’s grip on power in then face of a changing society.
Ultimately, any system of honor would need to be taught to new adherents. It’s no different from a religion or legal system in that regard. No one comes out of the womb fully indoctrinated to a system of honor. So no, it isn’t really self-explanatory. Like any social construct, you would need to define the system and how it interacts with the society in which is was created. Otherwise, it’s just naming a system for social control and hoping no one notices that it’s a hollow shell.
I think honor is living by the rules one sets upon themselves and others. Especially when shit gets hard. It’s easy to say “I help people” but it’s a lot harder to push a car to the shoulder in the rain because somebody has a flat on a highway. It’s also easy to say people should let you in line because you have two items but do you do that when you have a full cart but really want to get home soon? I try to teach my kids “if you can help, you have to help”. When they do that, they bring honor to themselves and the family.
Ymmv.
To me, honour is being answerable to your duties of being a good citizen. Being honest, being helpful, being civil, having integrity - all that can be part of honour.
Without meaning to push your buttons, you’ve defined honour using concepts that have to be further defined to really explain what honour is. Like you could ask what helpful is exactly, would it be helpful to do xyz, etc, and you could argue over it. But then that answers OP’s question I suppose by demonstrating that it’s not known a priori.
When I say honor, what I mean is the idea of every individual being called to answer to everyone else.
It was not my will to be alive, but I was brought here anyway
It was never my will to keep living, but I still have to “because reasons”
The fact that I am alive right now is already enough. I don’t owe any fuckers anything. You owe me. I answer to myself.
I don’t need honor to not rape or kill because I’m not a pscyco, but my life is my own and if you don’t like Boo-fucking- hoo
