Stephen Mathis on academic honor codes

14 Tuesday Aug 2012

Posted by dan demetriou in honor and ethics conference, honor code, philosophy of honor

Stephen Mathis (Wheaton College) just gave me permission to post the video of his “Justifying Academic Honor Codes” talk he gave at University of Minnesota, Morris’ Honor and Ethics conference last April. (I have also posted his paper on the honor scholarship page. He welcomes comments on it.)

Stephen has firsthand experience at schools with very rigorous honor codes indeed, both as a student and a professor, and has a lot of interesting insights on the topic.

Here is an abstract of his paper:

Despite considerable empirical research on student cheating and academic honor codes at colleges and universities, very few philosophers have explored either the normative implications of cheating on academic institutions or the ethical underpinnings of academic honor codes. In this paper, I want to argue that honor codes help to define the individual academic communities in which they arise, and the features those various codes—and communities—share are characteristic of the academy as a whole. If I am right about this claim, then academic honor codes would identify and reinforce the boundaries of the academic community as a moral community. Thus, the best justification for such codes is one which prioritizes the academic pursuit of knowledge above many other interests, including the individual self-interest of the students subject to those codes.

Dishonor at the Olympics

11 Saturday Aug 2012

Posted by dan demetriou in honor and sport, honor in contempory media

≈ 2 Comments

This Olympics has been marred by dishonorableness of a certain type: call it “strategic losing.”

The most widely-reported case was the Chinese, Indonesian, and South Korean women badminton teams obviously throwing some preliminary matches in order to secure a better draw later in the tournament. They were expelled from the Olympics.

Another involved Algeria’s Taoufik Makhloufi, who quit his 800m heat, apparently because he knew he wouldn’t win it and wanted to save himself for the next day’s 1500m finals. The Olympic authorities kicked Makhloufi out of the games temporarily, but reinstated him when a doctor supported his claim of a knee injury. The “injury” must have healed miraculously, since Makhloufi won the 1500m the next day.

A third case involved a British cyclist who deliberately crashed after a bad start. By doing so, he got a restart and ended up winning the gold. A fourth case involved Japan’s women soccer team, who had been instructed by their coach not to win a preliminary contest against South Africa, allowing the team to stay in Cardiff and avoid the stress of travel. Neither of these two cases drew disciplinary action.

Question: Is it okay to strategically lose?

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Talks given at “Honor and Ethics” mini-conference

04 Saturday Aug 2012

Posted by dan demetriou in anthropology of honor, honor and ethics conference, philosophy of honor, political science of honor

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[Edit: Thanks to a reader who alerted me to the fact that the entire lectures were not uploaded. That has been fixed, and Shannon French’s very engaging talk on warrior codes has been added as well]

I finally got around to uploading the talks given at the Midwest Philosophy Colloquium’s Honor and Ethics mini-conference. The conference was held at the University of Minnesota, Morris, on April 6, 2012.

Some more talks from that event may be posted soon—I’m just waiting for permission from the relevant speakers.

Frank Stewart, “An Anthropologist Looks at Honor”

Part 1

part 2

part 3

Lad Sessions, “Honor, Morality, Brotherhood”

Part 2

Part 3

Laurie Johnson, “Honor in Today’s America”

part 2

Part 3

Ryan Rhodes, “Honor and the Moral Value of Reputation” (Ryan didn’t have a mic, so the sound is a bit iffy at some points, but well worth a viewing. We’ll try to get Ryan to post his paper on this blog.)

Part 2

Shannon French, “Honor Through the Ages: Differing Conceptions of a Key Concept at the Heart of the Warrior’s Code”

Part 2

Part 3

Welcome Robert Oprisko

02 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by dan demetriou in announcements, honor and international studies

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On behalf of honorethics.org, I am pleased to welcome Robert Oprisko as a contributor.

Robert L. Oprisko is a Visiting Assistant Professor of International Studies at Butler University, Indiana. Dr. Oprisko specializes in how social structure (from the individual to the international system) leads to conflict and cooperation. He has previously taught for Purdue University and Johns Hopkins University and is an expert at developing teams for Model United Nations. He is the author of the recent Honor: A Phenomenology:

A ground-breaking examination of honor as a metaphenomenon, this book incorporates various structures of social control including prestige, face, shame and affiliated honor and the rejection of said structures by dignified individuals and groups. It shows honor to be a concept that encompasses a number of processes that operate together in order to structure society. Honor is how we are inscribed with social value by others and the means by which we inscribe others with social honor. Because it is the means by which individuals fit in and function with society, the main divisions internal (within the psyche of the individual and external (within the norms and institutions of society). Honor is the glue that holds groups together and the wedge that forces them apart; it defines who is us and who them. It accounts for the continuity and change in socio-political systems.

Welcome aboard, Robert! We look forward to your contributions.