What Should Realists Say About Honor Cultures?

Richard Nisbett and Dov Cohen's (1996) influential account of "cultures of honor" speculates that honor norms are a socially-adaptive deterrence strategy. This theory has been appealed to by multiple empirically-minded philosophers, and plays an important role in John Doris and Alexan...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Demetriou, Dan (Autor)
Tipo de documento: Electrónico Artículo
Lenguaje:Inglés
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Publicado: Springer Science + Business Media B. V [2014]
En: Ethical theory and moral practice
Año: 2014, Volumen: 17, Número: 5, Páginas: 893-911
Otras palabras clave:B Pluralism
B Moral Disagreement
B Honor cultures
B Metaethical realism
B Social Psychology
B cultural psychology
Acceso en línea: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Descripción
Sumario:Richard Nisbett and Dov Cohen's (1996) influential account of "cultures of honor" speculates that honor norms are a socially-adaptive deterrence strategy. This theory has been appealed to by multiple empirically-minded philosophers, and plays an important role in John Doris and Alexandra Plakias' (2008) antirealist argument from disagreement. In this essay, I raise four objections to the Nisbett-Cohen deterrence thesis, and offer another theory of honor in its place that sees honor as an agonistic normative system regulating prestige competitions. Since my account portrays honor norms as radically different from liberal ones, it actually strengthens Doris and Plakias' case in some respects: cultures of honor are not merely superficially different from Western liberal ones. Nonetheless, the persistent appeal of honor's principles, and their moral plausibility in certain contexts, suggests not antirealism, but pluralism—a reply on behalf of realism that itself has considerable empirical support.
ISSN:1572-8447
Obras secundarias:Enthalten in: Ethical theory and moral practice
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10677-014-9490-3