HONOUR - Why?, Capatilism and Natural Selection

**Desperado †** · October 04, 2008, 03:57 PM

[Inspired by the Chivallry thread]

HONOUR is my favourite word. Nearly everyone has heard it, but it is a word very hard to define.

The Shorter Oxford English dictionary gives;

2. Personal title to high respect or esteem; honourableness; elevation of character; a fine sense of and strict allegiance to what is due or right...

To me, honour is something set only by yourself. Being honourable is doing something for the benefit of others that does not benefit yourself.

But why? Why do humans have this trait?

Kindness, and other traits can be defined by natural selection - we act like animals, tit for tat, hopping that if we give someone a favour when they are in need they will give us a favour when we are in need, thus improving our chances of reproducing. The same can be said for why we would die for a member of familly - it can easilly be found in maths. It makes sense to die for two brothers, or eight cousins, as chances are one of them have the same gene as you and so it will be passed on. Why do we have horrible greedy millionares in the world? Well the theory is it goes in a cycle, that when we are rich there is little need to be kind as it will not help us out in future as we will probablly allways be better than the person we are helping. But then as the millionare has kids (say 2) and they have 2 kids, gradually one of them might become less rich. His children would once again need the trait of kindness more to survive and become rich again, and so through natural selection might develop it again.

So, by this, do we even know if Honour exists? Or is it just another piece of evolution? I know many that would probablly die for one brother, or one friend, and this would not increase their chances of their gene being passed on. Why, also, are kind to people on the streets that we do not even know? Or, why do we donate to homeless people who are not related to us? Fellow human instinct? Or something deeper?

Honour often contradicts Capatilism, the main goverment system for us Humans. If you are an honourable person, this does not help you in the capatilist dog eat dog world. Capatilism does not deny Honourable people from being honourable, but it does not usually favour you to rise in the ranks of capatilism. is capitilism destroying Honour?

Then again, in Communism all Honour is placed on a plater. We do not have to be honourable as we know that the goverment allready uses all our incomes to try its best to make things equal.

So, is there such thing as honour (this may lead to the argument of free will....please don't take it there)? Is there a place for honour in our modern society? Are people honourable?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**The Cobra** · October 04, 2008, 04:48 PM

honour is archaic.

**Desperado †** · October 04, 2008, 04:53 PM

What do you mean by that? Elaborate? (sorry, I looked up Archaic on Wikipedia, and still don't quite understand.)

**Father Jack** · October 04, 2008, 04:57 PM

Originally Posted by Caradog

What do you mean by that? Elaborate? (sorry, I looked up Archaic on Wikipedia, and still don't quite understand.)

Archaic basicly means old and unnecessary. Its from the ancient Greek Archaic era of history (9th - 6th century BC I think). He is pretty much saying that the whole concept of honour is an outdated idea. Which in my opinion honour is not a big part of our culture anymore so it is becoming archaic. We still of course call good/moral acts as honourable but that is even on the wain.