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Published On: Apr 26, 2006 10:02 PM
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Published On: Apr 26, 2006 10:02 PM
Honor versus Reputation
So yeah, I've been thinking lately. Mainly I've
been thinking about going home, but not to the absolute exclusion of everything
else. And since I'm in a plane on the way to Germany for another hour and a
half or so, I figured I'd try to work out the differences between our personal
honor and our personal reputations.
I believe that I at least tend to get these confused sometimes. When I'm afraid that someone's opinion of me has affected my honor, what I actually mean is that it has injured my reputation with them. This is not necessarily better or worse, but it is different.
Suppose I get in a fight with a friend who believes I lied to him or her. The fight gets soothed over, but not resolved, and they continue thinking of me as a liar. We're assuming here that I did not lie, and that it's all a misunderstanding.
Does my honor suffer because of this? Probably not. Honor is internal. If I had actually lied, my honor would have suffered regardless of whether I were found out or not. The perceptions of others, however, do not affect my honor, unless my sense of self is so low that by being accused of being a liar, I instantly take up that lifestyle, in which case, I have much greater concerns than my honor.
However, this does affect my reputation, obviously. My reputation as an honorable, non-lying person will suffer as a result of this argument. It's unfortunate, because reputation is as important to most Asatru as honor or any other virtue. We must try to avoid this for our own happiness by setting an example for virtuousness which precludes the idea that one could be less than virtuous. When such disagreements or arguments occur, they should be stopped as soon as possible to prevent such misunderstandings from occurring.
Just thinking out loud, as usual.
I believe that I at least tend to get these confused sometimes. When I'm afraid that someone's opinion of me has affected my honor, what I actually mean is that it has injured my reputation with them. This is not necessarily better or worse, but it is different.
Suppose I get in a fight with a friend who believes I lied to him or her. The fight gets soothed over, but not resolved, and they continue thinking of me as a liar. We're assuming here that I did not lie, and that it's all a misunderstanding.
Does my honor suffer because of this? Probably not. Honor is internal. If I had actually lied, my honor would have suffered regardless of whether I were found out or not. The perceptions of others, however, do not affect my honor, unless my sense of self is so low that by being accused of being a liar, I instantly take up that lifestyle, in which case, I have much greater concerns than my honor.
However, this does affect my reputation, obviously. My reputation as an honorable, non-lying person will suffer as a result of this argument. It's unfortunate, because reputation is as important to most Asatru as honor or any other virtue. We must try to avoid this for our own happiness by setting an example for virtuousness which precludes the idea that one could be less than virtuous. When such disagreements or arguments occur, they should be stopped as soon as possible to prevent such misunderstandings from occurring.
Just thinking out loud, as usual.
Posted: Tue - April 20, 2004 at 08:57 PM