Honor

The Sunday Richmond Times-Dispatch covered the topic of honor in their Commentary section with articles by history author James Bowman, W&L professor Lad Sessions, and university students Jonathan Burk (Hampden-Sydney Honor Court member), Benjamin Cooper (UVa Honor Committee Chairman), Brian Whitaker (Va Tech Honor Court), and Stephen Gregg (Mary Washington Honor Council President), offering an excellent discussion on the topic.

Professor Lad Sessions teaches "The Concept of Honor" at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA. He defined the categories of honor:

* Conferred honor: Where someone bestows praise and gifts on another; it's mostly reputation.

* Positional honor: Where one has elite status or achievement; it's mostly social "success."

* Recognition honor: Where one publicly recognizes excellence.

*Commitment honor: Where one is devoted to a principle.

* Personal honor: Where one has a certain virtue, a character trait. It involves reliably following the principles (the "honor code") of a group of similarly committed persons (the "honor group") and being loyal and trustworthy to those persons.

Interesting read.