Episode 116, 'Why Honour Matters' (Part II – Further Analysis and Discussion)
The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast
Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane
4.8 • 612 Ratings
🗓️ 12 March 2023
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Honour calls a person to defend their teammates, support their family, and have self-respect. To heed the call of honour, say those who listen, leads us towards a good life. Yet, honour does not bear the marks of modern liberal morality. Honour does not focus on the universal but the particular, nor does it claim impartiality. Rather, honour is deeply personal and emotional.
For some, the call of honour is like that of the sirens of Greek mythology: causing the illusion of what is good. In reality, pursuing that good causes us to crash on the rocks of family feuds, cycles of violence, and the subjection of women. But is this really the full story? Must a culture of honour result in revenge and injustice? And is modern liberal morality fit to play the role many thinkers wish it to?
In this interview, we'll be speaking to Tamler Sommers, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Houston and host of the Very Bad Wizards podcast. Tamler is the author of several books, including, Relative Justice, A Very Bad Wizard: Morality Behind the Curtain, and – the focus of our interview – Why Honor Matters.
It is time, according to Sommers, for those who are sceptical or separated from the importance of honour to reassess their relationship with it. To do so raises questions of criminal justice, morality, love, friendship, and personal integrity. In short, honour can be a great motivator across almost all areas of human life, says Sommers, and it is time we give it the respect it deserves.
Contents
Part I. Everything is Clear
Part II. Further Analysis and Discussion
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Pan Pan Pan Pan Pan Pan Pan Pan Pan Pan Pan Pan Pan Pan Pan Pan Pan Pan |
| 0:06.8 | Scicast |
| 0:07.7 | Part 2, further analyses and discussion. |
| 0:26.0 | So in our last installment, we spoke about the nature and role of honour, which you argue |
| 0:30.6 | is a powerful motivator for moral action. How can we make the most of what honour has to offer |
| 0:36.0 | in order to make our society better while |
| 0:38.6 | limiting its disadvantages? So here could we dive more deeply into the idea of restorative justice, |
| 0:44.7 | what it is, its connection with honor and why it is preferable to the current US justice system? |
| 0:50.6 | It's a pretty easy sell to say that any approach to criminal offense is better than our current |
| 0:59.0 | system because our current system is such a tragic mess. It's such a disgrace. It is a huge |
| 1:07.0 | national disgrace. The roots and causes of it are myriad, but the basic philosophy behind it |
| 1:15.3 | is built on some kind of incoherent blend of consequentialist or utilitarian approaches to punishment |
| 1:23.4 | and retributive approaches to punishment. And especially the retributive side of it, |
| 1:29.8 | which has become more emphasized really since the 60s and 70s, |
| 1:35.0 | when you actually look at the theories and the justifications behind it, |
| 1:42.6 | they range from just false to obviously insanely incoherent and |
| 1:50.8 | reprehensible. I mean, the philosophical justifications for retributivism are shockingly bad. |
| 1:59.1 | And yet, when you're talking about the courts and when you're talking about |
| 2:02.9 | decisions like Supreme Court decisions, you will see these principles being referred to as if |
| 2:10.2 | they have some kind of solid philosophical foundation and they don't. But obviously, no retributive or utilitarian theory would justify or explain |
| 2:21.7 | what's going on in the U.S. in particular. And I don't know how it is in England. I imagine it's not |
| 2:28.1 | quite as bad, but shares some of the bad traits. It's a little hard to blame the theorizing about what would justify punishment |
... |
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