Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah sees honor as the key to moral
progress For many twenty-first-century Americans, the notion of
honor rings hollow. Media critic and academic James Bowman, for
instance, has claimed that we live in a post-honor society and
that old notions of honor have themselves become shameful. The
very word “honor” conjures up images of the joust or a gentle
slap with a soft leather glove: haughty behaviors perhaps best
left to history books. According to philosopher Kwame Anthony
Appiah, however, honor is the very thing we need more of. In The
Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen, Appiah maintains that,
rather than being obsolete, honor can be a fundamental, powerful
engine for social change. Appiah makes a distinction between the
demands of honor and those of morality. The two, he says, are
independent systems that may or may not align: one can behave
honorably in the service of an immoral cause. “What we need,”
says Appiah, on the other hand, “are codes of honor that are
compatible w