The Book of Honor

This book has been difficult for me to write - mostly because I second-guess myself at every step. I don't really have any greater claim to understand honor than anyone else - no greater claim than you do, who are reading this. And at every turn I wonder whether these thoughts really stand up to scrutiny - philosophers seem to focus on so many more esoteric things . . .

All of that leaves me uncertain. What has driven me to keep moving forward is this: When I look at the world, it appears to have taken leave of its senses. There are so many things happening which simply fly in the face of common sense - they are obviously wrong, obviously nonsensical . . . and yet they happen.

That reality affirms my goal. What I am setting out to do, here, is present the concepts of honor and virtue in a simple, basic, plain manner. The thought experiments are accessible to anyone - no training in philosophy required. They are simple and common-sensical. All they require is a basic recognition that what humans feel is really important. From there, I think the logic is strong - I hope it is strong. Because I believe what the world really needs is to set aside the "sophisticated" arguments which seem to be turning common sense on its head.

It takes a truly "sophisticated" person to make lunacy seem like good sense.

Perhaps it is foolish of me to produce this work - perhaps the sophisticated philosophers will tear it to shreds. But I hope it will serve as a simple reminder of what common people know to be common sense.

I am hoping to release this book into the public domain after a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. I think that approach to publishing has a tremendous amount of promise. I think that, perhaps, we are only beginning to see how disruptive the Internet has the potential to be. If you want to know more about that idea, follow this link.