What is honor and why should it exist?

Honor only exists if it is bestowed by a group onto an individual. By joining a specific group, the group grants a person a set amount of honor. By virtue of admitting a new member into the group, the group recognizes the capacity to act with honor within the individual, which befits membership into their ranks. While being honorable or acting with honor is something we do as individuals, that code of honor is defined and accepted by others. Honor, therefore, is a social agreement about how to act within a given group or as a member of a specific society or culture.

Not all groups have the same codes of honor. Actions considered honorable in the mafia may be, and in many cases are, anathema to the police department. Yet both groups have their own codes of honor by which they live. Honor in one group does not necessarily transfer to another group. In other words, people of one group do not always recognize the honor of another group.

Groups have different hierarchies of leadership and authority. A person must gain, or cause others to lose, honor within the group so they can rise up through the ranks. This means that honor is fluid, because it can be gained and lost over time.

What does all this mean with regards to the value of honor?

Honor exists to guide human behavior in society. Honor is valuable because it keeps anarchy at bay. When people belong to a group they rarely want to be seen as not having honor within that group. People become incentivized to maintain their honor. If honor exists at the society level, then there is little need for robust laws to restrict human behavior—the honor system does that automatically.

There are downsides to honor. People can self-silence to preserve their honor in society. If the group does something bad, then other members of the group may not speak up against the group’s actions for fear of losing honor among members of the group. Honor can also be used to coerce people to do things that are immoral or unethical. A leader of a group can coerce new members (who are seeking to maintain their honor status within the group) to do things the new members do not want to do.

Honor, like many things, can be both positive and negative. How the honor is used within a group determines its positive or negative value. When used as a force for good, honor can simplify how a society governs itself.