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Laurie Johnson Bagby examines the loss of the appreciation for honor in modern Western society through an examination of the political philosophy of English political philosopher Thomas Hobbes. She finds in Hobbes's thought a _turning point for honor,_ in which honor is rejected as too dangerous, and fear and self-interest are put in its place as the chief means of peace and good order.
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Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes Turning Point for Honor Laurie M. Johnson Bagby LEXINGTON BOOKS A division of ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK LEXINGTON BOOKS A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200 Lanham, MD 20706 Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom Copyright © 2009 by Lexington Books All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bagby, Laurie M. Thomas Hobbes : turning point for honor / Laurie M. Johnson Bagby. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7391-2637-0 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-7391-2637-7 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-7391-3605-8 (electronic) ISBN-10: 0-7391-3605-4 (electronic) 1. Hobbes, Thomas, 1588–1679. 2. Honor. I. Title. B1248.H66B35 2009 192—dc22 2008050908 Printed in the United States of America ⬁ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. To Tim and Hunter—honor! Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 What Honor Meant to Hobbes 13 2 Gentlemen and Martyrs 49 3 Fear and Self-Preservation 99 Conclusion 147 Bibliography 165 Index 171 About the Author 175 vii Acknowledgments My great appreciation and thanks to Ms. Kathy MacKenzie, my graduate research assistant, who helped with the research and editing for this book, as well as formatting the text to the publisher’s specifications. Ms. MacKenzie has worked efficiently and in the most helpful manner in this and other research over several years, and she has my gratitude. I also wish to thank Professor Marsha Frey for her initial reading and critique of this book, and also for the very helpful comments and suggestions of the anonymous reviewer. In addition, I must express my gratitude to Kansas State University for allowing me a half-year sabbatical in which I did the lion’s share of writing on this project. ix Introduction Recently there has been a small but noticeable surge of interest in the idea of honor, and the question of what our society makes of this idea in the twentyfirst century. In 2004, Brad Miner’s The Compleat Gentleman: The Modern Man’s Guide to Chivalry was published.1 This book was aimed at a popular audience and did not use scholarly citations. Nonetheless, it was noticed by some elements of the intellectual class, notably by conservative commentators for whom the revival of honor resonated as a worthwhile project. Indeed, Miner’s purpose in writing the book was to revive, especially for men, the sense of honor developed during the Middle Ages, a project that for many scholars would seem anachronistic at best. Early in his book, Miner recounts the decisi