Honor (Long read, beware)

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Honor (Long read, beware)

Postby Lord Drederick » Wed Feb 01, 2006 6:06 pm

Honor

If it is wrong to seek false glory or what is not deserved, so it is wrong also to rob oneself of a deserved honor and not seek that praise which alone is the true reward of virtuous labors. (The Book of the Courtier.)
To choose glory, making evident the preference to habitation in glory to training in humility for political reasons. This shows me that honor is vanity, used to possess power both on a political and social level.

Men who love honor and who expect others to love it, not, chiefly, because in seeking such insubstantial compensation they are fantastical and vain, but because they are dangerous. This view of honor from a low standpoint can show it’s merit for it seeks to make the world a safer place. However, safer for whom or what is not explained.

“Nor does it alter the case of honor whether an action, so be it great and difficult, and consequently a sign of much power, be it just or unjust, for ‘honor consists only in the opinion of power.’” (Thomas Hobbes Leviathon.)
The values men place upon themselves comes not from within when it is in the pursuit of honor but from the opinions of others reflected upon deeds done to gain respect and acceptance.

But the proud endanger themselves and other men by striving after honor. The pride of lofty men finds encouragement that honor and human excellence are one. However, human excellence bears a much more valorous place in the workings of the human heart. Proud men take confidence from the conviction that in pursuing honors they live up to the best impulse present in human nature and that any honor they have achieved should therefore attest to an excellence they possess by nature independently of others opinions. Yet the truth is their own confidence rests upon their success in finding others who agree with them; Whereas their very corpse mocks them with it’s death grimace.

So in this we see the difference between honor and human excellence. The two easily confused by the minds of those who seek glory in the eyes of others and not themselves.

Our Glory is a testimony of our Conscience.

For Honor:
1.) Honors are the suffrages not of tyrants, but of divine providence.
2.) Honors make both virtued and conspicuous.
3.) Honor is the touchstone of virtue.
4.) The motion of Virtue is rapid to it’s place, but calm in it, but the place of virtue is honor.
Against Honor:
1.) To seek Honor is to lose liberty.
2.) Honors give command where it is best not to will; and next, not be able.
3.) The steps of Honor are hard to climb and slippery atop. They are more dangerous to go down.
4.) Men in great places borrow others opinions to think themselves happy.


Honor appears a negligible possession and even a hindrance from the very lofty perspective of perfect eudemonia, a perspective that abstracts individual human life from its political context. If one seek fortified calmness, the clamors of public recognition annoy with unwelcome excitements. If one intends to meditate upon universal truths, honors merely distract.

John Adams stated this:
By this destination of their natures men of all sorts, even those who have the least of reason, virtue or benevolence, are chained down to an incessant servitude to their fellow creatures: laboring without intermission to produce something which shall contribute to the comfort, convenience, pleasure, profit or utility of some or others of the species. They are really, thus, constituted by their own vanity, slaves of mankind.

A man reaches proper love of honors when he truly understands the degree of his own merit and upon this ground forms a just estimate of what he deserves in the way of recognition from other men. The idea of self knowledge traditionally extends to several distinct objects of prudence including and awareness of capabilities, observance of social decorum and recognition of am oral imperative to act consistent with an absolute norm for human beings which may or may not equate with the character’s self as that self habitually is.

Better human beings arrive at self knowledge by overcoming their character flaws, however, they do seldom and with difficulty that attests to near incorrigibility of ignorance confirmed by habit.

Magnanimous

Being magnanimous means to have composure, self-respect, self-reliance, self-understanding of values and faith. Honor, it would appear, is naught but an opinion of others projected upon another.
Honor is vanity stripped down to it’s base. Carried by men who confuse image with valor. To insult honor is to insult vanity. It is carried like a shield against self-values. It denotes our inner needs for others to accept us and is, in short, slavery.
To wit, slavery is indeed noble when the needs of the many are carried upon the shoulders of the one. However, it falls upon the individual to remain magnanimous, to set his faith in ideals to react without vanity. I have come to see Honor as an enigma. It is in the eye of the beholder, as well as in the heart, to remain true to one’s self and cast aside vanity. Only in understanding the selfish human nature, and taking into account that understanding, can a man seek true Glory, unfettered by opinion or power. Glory at it’s base comes from within: It is what we see in the mirror, reflected, that we must face each night and ask the question; “Have I remained true to my beliefs and can I live with my actions today?”

Magnanimity is shown when in seeking or avoiding, the acceptance or refusal of riches, advances of honors, we are actuated by a regard to our own dignity, rightly understood.
Composure, self-esteem, self-reliance, self-respect and a complete self-understanding of value and faith in one’s beliefs are the gateway to greatness. The greatness of the soul.

Desert is relative to external goods and the greatest of these, the prize appointed to the noblest deeds, is honor. Honor and dishonor, therefore, are objects with respect to which a magnanimous man is as he should be. And magnanimous men appear to be concerned with honor, for it is honor they chiefly claim.
He values tokens or recognition more that over external goods such as wealth and power; however, finally he does not value greatly even honor. Loving honor amply does not insure loving honor wisely or justly.

“That which we render to the Gods.” Points to the very essence of virtue” The great souled are as nearly autonomous in their Virtue and happiness as human beings are permitted to be.
This independence, and not the concern for honor, ultimately distinguishes the type.

Aristotle finally locates magnanimity in that self-sufficient man who has no indispensable needs which he must depend on others to supply. Because he needs little, he can be free, courageous, generous and unguarded in all his actions; and just this independence enables him to despise those things which other men need, including honor. He feels indifferent to [raise because he requires no supporting opinion to confirm his confidence in his worth. His confidence feeds contentment. When he accepts praise he does so without fuss, in the spirit of one who rates not the gift but the kindly intent of the giver. For the same reasons he will not nurse grievances for it is not part of a magnanimous man to have a long memory. Magnanimity is the self-knowledge of the morally excellent man.

Moral virtue alone would appear to suffice for at least a sort of self-sufficiency, and therefore one should not simply identify the magnanimous man with the philosopher.

Megalopschia – the man that pursues honor above all else. The man who aspires to megalopschia, imitates some traits of the magnanimous, yet fails the essentials.
Vanity may be tragic and not merely foolish.

Aristotle spoke of Honor thusly:
“Those who desire honor from good men, and men who know, are aiming at confirming their own opinion of themselves; they delight in honor, therefore, because they believe in their own goodness on the strength of those who speak about them.”

A warrior, it appears, can achieve that measure of self-sufficiency permitted to the active life not by accumulating praise but by putting his courage in the service of some cause not dependant for it’s worth on the opinions of others.

The capacity for generous love comes to supplant the classical virtues of prudence, justice, temperance and courage as the measure of nobility. As human beings all men deserve respect.

Self-respect grounded in justice and wisdom. This is a greatsouled man.

So it would appear that honor in any sense of the word is, in fact, vanity. It is only in becoming magnanimous; without need of others opinions on self-worth, that one truly becomes greatsouled.

Virtues

“Not in order to know what virtue is but in order to become good.”

In the virtuous desire and judgment agree. So their choices and actions will be free of conflict and pain. This is because the part of their soul that governs choice and action is so disposed that desire and judgment coincide. Acquiring a stable disposition of this sort amounts to acquiring moral virtue.
The disposition is concerned with the choices as would be determined by the person of practical wisdom; these would be actions lying between extreme alternatives. They will lie in the center relative to the talents of the person.
Choosing in this way is not easily done. It involves, for instance, feeling anger or extending generosity at the right time, towards the right people, in the right way, and for the right reasons. Intellectual virtues, such as mathematics, can be acquired by teaching, moral virtue cannot.
Because moral virtue is a disposition concerning choices, deliberate performance of virtuous acts can ultimately instill a disposition to chose them in harmony and with pleasure and, hence, to act virtuously.

Moral Virtue – The end of all action, the good of man, is happiness.

By human virtue or excellence we mean not that of the body but that of the soul, and by happiness we mean activity of the soul.
We call some virtues intellectual and others moral. Wisdom, intelligence, and prudence are intellectual. Liberality and temperance are moral. In describing a persons character we do not say that he is wise or intelligent but that he is gentle or temperate. A wise man, however, we praise for his mentality, and such mentality as deserves praise we call virtuous. A great souled man, or magnanimous man encompasses both aspects in harmony.
Moral virtues can best be acquired by practice and habit. The imply a right attitude towards pleasures and pains. A good man deliberately chooses what is noble and right for it’s own sake. What is right in matters of moral conduct is usually a center between two extremes. By abstaining from the pleasures we become temperate, and when we have become temperate, we are best able to abstain from them so it is with all things. It is by training ourselves to abstain certain vices or to face our fears that we become our own masters.
However, acts in accordance with virtue are not justly or temperately performed because we are just or temperate ourselves. It is the individual performing them that must satisfy certain conditions, he must know what he is doing, he must act deliberately and choose to do it, doing it for it’s own sake, and he must do it as part of his own firm and immutable character.
A man is praised or blamed only for his voluntary acts. Involuntary acts committed in ignorance or under compulsion, may be forgiven. Moral purpose is a deliberate desire to bring about something good within our power to be accomplished.

As virtue is concerned with emotion and action and actions and emotions that are voluntary are objects of praise or blame, while those that are involuntary are objects for pardon and sometimes pity, we must distinguish the voluntary from the involuntary.
A good man is the right judge in every case and that which is true appears true to him. There is no other mark so distinctive of the good man as his power of seeing truth in all cases, because he is himself the standard and measure of things. Pleasure seems to be what so often deceives people, for it appears good when it is not, as a result we choose what is pleasant as if it were good, and avoid pain as if it were evil. This is sadly a misconception for it is pain that sharpens the senses and keeps a man alert, it is also humbling, encouraging a man to keep his perspective and helps him to remember life is precious. For pain is a vital part of the human condition.

A persons character is the result of the way in which he exercises his capacities. This is proved by those who train for any competition or action; for they never stop practicing.
The crown of virtues thus turns out to be resourcefulness in arraigning the most effective self-display.

And so it is we have dissected what it means to be magnanimous: Virtuous and high-minded. This life is not an easy one. One must remain ever diligent to the path he has chosen, thinking always of his actions. He cannot set aside, even for a moment, what he is. To do so would destroy what he has attained. He must remain consistent with his virtues in all aspects of his life; for to behave without virtue for even a moment is to disgrace oneself.

**I beg the reader to bear in mind that this is not but an in-depth look at the beliefs of one person. There is a certain kind of knowledge or wisdom that ensures right action, however, this can come about only in self-understanding. Experience and right choice can shape one into becoming virtuous; magnanimous. My beliefs are merely that, my beliefs. I do not seek to conform others to my way of thinking, to do so would be vain. For those who took the time to read this, thank you.
Oh heart of shale and bowel of cork! Now shall you be chastized!
Lord Drederick
Stablehand
 
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