Many people ask questions about what honor is. What is dignity? And for good reason, because it exists great amount answers to these difficult questions. In this article we will try not only to answer them, but also to consider several models of morality, where good and evil are not absolute, and sometimes change places with each other.
Ideal man
Unfortunately, it is impossible to give general definition honor and dignity, because everything depends on the value system that a person adheres to. Everyone has a certain moral ideal of a person. Everyone has his own: for some it is his father or uncle, and for others it is Socrates or M. Gandhi. And accordingly, each person answers the question of what honor and dignity are in his own way. It happens like this: a person evaluates his closeness to his own moral ideal and draws a conclusion about his own morality or immorality.
But even without giving precise definition, we can say that dignity is an internal parameter of the individual, and honor is, rather, how society evaluates a person and considers him either honest or dishonest (conscientious or unscrupulous).
Christian morality
Whatever ideal an ordinary person chooses, he will still most likely be within the limits of the Christian commandments; if he is an atheist, then he will still obey the postulates of Moses, but only the last five (those that begin with “thou shalt not kill”). Since our entire civilization has a Christian basis.
Jesus later humanized some of the Mosaic commandments, but the moral imperative remained the same. It makes no difference whether a person believes in God or not, but he considers it wrong to kill (and even cause mental or physical pain), cheat on your wife, steal, slander and envy.
Some will say, but everyone, one way or another, is susceptible to these sins. This is true, but no one says that people are sinless. A person himself, if he is honest enough with himself, can always answer how worthy he is of his own ideal.
And now, in short: every time someone is asked what human honor is, he answers and gives an approximate definition of this phenomenon, focusing on the commandments that are well known to everyone. It seems simple and clear. Now it's time to move on to practical cases.
Doctors
For our examples, we specifically chose “state employees” (teachers and doctors), since their work clearly shows how relative, for example, the concept of what honor is. And this is not always a bad thing, everything will become clearer when we move on to specific examples.
Doctors and the problem of euthanasia. This is a very fashionable topic now, not only among doctors, but also among philosophers or psychologists. Many copies have been broken in discussions on the topic: “Is it moral to take a person’s life even if he is suffering from constant and unbearable pain?” Accordingly, a doctor who takes one side or the other will be perceived by his colleagues and evaluated by them in completely polar ways, depending on the position the doctor occupies in this difficult, but important issue, and dignity as an internal definition of oneself may not suffer at the same time. As can be seen from this reasoning, the answers to the question of what is the honor and dignity of a person can be different.
Teachers
Teachers and the problem psychological violence over the student. Maybe someone doesn’t know, so they will be pretty surprised, but education is already violence against a person, pacifying his natural inclinations for the sake of instilling a love of knowledge or even for the sake of his acceptance of ordinary cultural norms of the society in which he lives.
Therefore, every time a teacher works with “new material,” he is faced with an almost difficult task: how to arouse in a person a passion for knowledge and at the same time not distort his personal, inner world. Unfortunately, in learning, as in geology, there are only two forces: pressure and time. But the difficulty is that you need to know exactly the relationship between time and pressure in order to get the maximum result in the optimal time.
And again, depending on the methodology, the teacher can be called a person without honor and conscience, and his internal moral judgment about himself and his actions can be quite unambiguous. Pedagogy, of course, is not medicine, but it also values the result, but people also look at whether the student’s personality is severely distorted. Medicine still works with a person as an object, but pedagogy cannot afford such a “luxury”; here a person must be thought of as a being with a living soul.
The Case of Marty McFly
Now we turn to material that is less serious and closer to a wide range of readers: cinema.
In 1985, the first film of Robert Zemeckis' cult trilogy, Back to the Future, was released. There are two main characters: Marty McFly and Emmett "Doc" Brown. Marty has a very serious problem that does not allow him to live in peace: he constantly thinks about how others will evaluate him, he is always under the gaze of “Big Brother”, called society. As we remember, M. McFly was deathly afraid that he would be considered a coward. As a result, only in the last part of the trilogy did Marty understand the relativity of the definition of what honor and dishonor are, because he almost paid for his ostentatious daring with his life. The hero of the film had an epiphany: “It is better to be a living coward than a dead hero.”
True, the last aphorism should not be interpreted literally; to understand everything exactly, you need to watch the film. But for those who do not have the time or desire for this, we will try to explain.
“Honor and dishonor” are categories by which society evaluates a person, which means that other people can easily, using these concepts, provoke the “hero” to take the actions that they need. Therefore, keeping this danger in mind, sometimes it is better to give up the title of “brave” and be considered a coward, but preserve self-respect and life.
If a reader had asked Marty what honor and dignity are, the guy would not have been at a loss and would have found something to answer. Well, we move on and move on to the next cult character of another, now gangster trilogy.
Godfather Ethics
Both Vito and Michael Corleone can hardly be called humanists. And yet, despite the fact that they violate the main Christian prohibition (“thou shalt not kill”), they cannot be called immoral people. They have a very strict moral code. Godfather he does not give orders to kill without reason, he only deals with family enemies and traitors. At the same time, the head of the mafia is tenderly attached to his family and takes care of the children.
Tyrants and the criminal world
Readers may object and say: “Yes, yes, we know, we know, all tyrants loved children very much.” It is true that despots had tender feelings for children, but there is a high probability that this was only in public and for her. The godfather is sincere in his feelings.
And yes, the Russian criminal world also has its own laws and has adopted its own moral code, to which all people involved in this activity are subject, but this fact does not refute, but only confirms the relative nature of the concepts of “honor” and “dignity.”
By the way, in structures such as the army, there is a strong hierarchy, and honor (how a person looks in the eyes of others) is much more important than dignity (how a person evaluates his actions).
Relativity and absoluteness of the concepts of honor and dignity, good and evil
All the arguments presented here say that, answering the question of what honor and dignity are, we must talk about the relativity of everything.
Yes, this is how life teaches us, people, but this is not how a person should teach his child. A newcomer to this world must believe that the moral imperatives of Christianity or any other world religion (you can do without religion, but rely on philosophical teachings, since the ocean of thought is wide, like man himself) are eternal and indestructible. Yes, life is very different from our ideas about it, but children should have a solid foundation, and they themselves will correct their ideas when the time comes.
At the beginning of the article, a seemingly simple question is posed - what is honor and dignity. And our goal was not to confuse the reader and mislead him, but only to show how simple questions are sometimes complex.
Responsibility.
Responsibility is the duty and necessity to give an account of one’s actions and actions, and to be responsible for their possible consequences.
Responsibility is generally a philosophical and sociological concept. Responsibility in ethics and responsibility in law are closely related. It is enough, for example, to recall the theoretical justifications of criminal liability and the principle of personal and culpable responsibility.
Human consciousness self-esteem is a form of self-awareness and self-control. A person does not commit a certain act, believing that it is beneath his dignity. Dignity is an expression of a person’s responsibility for his behavior to himself, a form of self-affirmation of the individual. Dignity obliges us to perform moral actions and to conform our behavior to the requirements of morality. At the same time, the dignity of the individual requires respect from others for it, recognition of the corresponding rights and opportunities for a person, and justifies the high demands placed on him by others. In this regard, dignity depends on a person’s position in society, the state of society, its ability to ensure the practical assertion of inalienable human rights, and recognition of the self-worth of the individual.
The concept of personal dignity is based on the principle of moral equality of all people, based on the equal right of every person to respect, the prohibition to humiliate his dignity, regardless of what social position he occupies. Human dignity is one of the highest moral values.
Honor as a category of ethics means a person’s moral attitude towards himself and the attitude towards him from society and those around him, when the moral value of an individual is associated with the moral merits of a person, with his specific social status, type of activity and moral merits recognized for him (the honor of an officer, the honor of a judge, the honor of a scientist, a doctor, an entrepreneur...).
Honor and dignity are closely interrelated. However, unlike dignity, which is based on the recognition of the equality of all people, honor evaluates people differentially. Historically, honor in the moral consciousness of society appeared in the form of ideas about tribal and class honor, which prescribes a person a certain way of life, activity, behavior that does not degrade the dignity of the class to which he belongs. Such were the ideas about officer honor in conditions when the officer corps was recruited mainly from the nobility. In Russia, as in others European countries In modern times, a duel was a way to resolve issues of honor. Prohibited by the strictest decrees of Peter I back in 1702, the duel nevertheless existed before the manifesto of Catherine II in 1787 and later. The order of the military department of May 20, 1884 essentially legalized dueling in the army.
Honor obliges a person to justify and maintain the reputation that he personally possesses and which belongs to the social group, the collective in which he is a member. Reputation – an opinion about a person’s moral character, formed by others, based on his previous behavior. Reputation certain social group is formed on the basis of the behavior of the individuals belonging to it for a sufficiently long time long period their activities. Reputation, of course, does not remain unchanged, nor do the people themselves who create it.
Thus, we see that morality occupies an important place in a person’s life and is an integral part of his life, fulfilling important functions in the formation of value guidelines and human interaction with society.
Ethics as a science not only studies, generalizes and systematizes the principles and norms of morality operating in society, but also contributes to the development of such moral ideas that best meet historical needs, thereby contributing to the improvement of society and man. Ethics as a science serves the social and economic progress of society, the establishment in it of the principles of humanism and justice.
2. Professional ethics: essence, classification, functions, types, norms and principles. Codes of Ethics. Professional and ethical categories.
Among the branches of ethical science, professional ethics is distinguished.
Professional ethics- this is a set of moral norms that determine a person’s attitude towards his professional duty, towards the people with whom he is connected by virtue of his profession and towards society as a whole.
Professional ethics- this is a set of rules of behavior of a certain social group, ensuring the moral nature of relationships determined or associated with professional activities, as well as a branch of science that studies the specifics of manifestations of morality in various types activities.
Professional ethics is the science of professional morality as a set of ideals and values, ideas about what should be, ethical principles and norms of behavior that reflect the essence of the profession and ensure relationships between people that develop in the process of work and stem from their content professional activity. Professional ethics at the same time is moral self-awareness professional group, its ideology and psychology.
Professional ethics are those specific features moral standards professional activities that are aimed directly at a person in certain conditions of his professional and official activities.
The tasks of professional ethics include identifying moral norms and assessments, judgments and concepts that characterize people in the role of representatives of a certain profession. Professional ethics develops norms, standards, and requirements specific to certain types of activities.
Professional ethics should also explain and teach morality, instill moral principles and ideas about duty and honor, and morally educate workers. Ethics is designed to educate, help people behave correctly with people, communicate in a production team, etc. Professional ethics teaches to follow moral standards accepted as the norm of behavior of people in certain activities. The employee must be guided by these standards. By looking up to this standard, a service worker must cultivate the appropriate personal quality.
The basis of professional ethics in the field of social and cultural services is intolerance of neglect of public interests, a high consciousness of public duty.
The subject of professional ethics speakers:
Personal qualities of a specialist necessary to fulfill his professional duty;
Moral relationships between specialists and objects/subjects of their activities (doctor - patient, teacher - student, etc.);
Relationships between the organization's staff and society;
The relationships of people within the work collective and the norms that regulate them;
Goals and methods of vocational training and education.
Main content of professional ethics are norms of behavior that prescribe a certain type of moral relations between people, necessary to fulfill one’s professional duty, as well as justification, interpretation of codes, tasks and goals of the profession. At the same time, the justification of moral relations in the sphere of professional activity presupposes:
Defining goals and motives labor activity;
Identification of standards and means of achieving the intended goal;
Evaluation of labor results and their social significance.
Features of professional ethics are presented in Fig. 2.
Honor is a rather broad concept, which is discussed in Lately began to forget. However, in the culture of many peoples it is even more important than human life. So what is honor?
Dictionary meaning
This is a complex concept that combines loyalty to one’s own principles, nobility, dignity, and a desire for justice. Nowadays such things often fade into the background, because not everyone knows the definition of what honor is. The dictionary says that these are the moral qualities and ethnic principles of an individual worthy of respect. Associations with this word in Russian culture are only good. It was often heard in speech, it was found both in prose and in songs. A man of honor is one who can live according to his conscience and maintain dignity even in the most difficult situations. Power and wealth are secondary for him.
Ideas about this were laid down in early age– his parents are responsible for how well a person follows his ideals. In the future, he himself is responsible for the state of his moral core.
What is woman's honor?
Interestingly, the meaning of this word in relation to people of different genders was different. What is honor for a girl? Previously, it consisted only of maintaining chastity, for married woman- in marital fidelity. Were different methods punishment for the one who did not preserve her virginity until the wedding - in the 19th century, such brides were put on a collar, and not only the offender herself could receive it, parents and the matchmaker were also punished. It was the latter who was considered the main person responsible for the bride’s chastity.
The demands on wives were even harsher - an unfaithful spouse could be flogged or beaten. Only in the last century did cruel punishments end - now, although dishonor is condemned, no serious problems is not expected from society. Now it all comes down to whether a woman is cheating or not in a relationship with her partner. Moral criteria, which will be discussed later, also began to matter.
Honor in a broad sense
For a man, this concept also includes a sexual aspect - if he cheats on his wife, then he is a dishonest person. But the matter is not limited to this - the term covers morality as a whole, and no longer depends on gender. Deceiving other people for the purpose of obtaining benefits, using them, the ability to abandon another in trouble, forgetting about a word given to someone - all this makes a person dishonest.
People who want to know what honor and dishonor are should remember that following one’s ideals is the main postulate of any person who wants to preserve his dignity. Also in this concept includes an untarnished reputation and good name- which is still expensive now, since reliable people are not found very often, but they are highly valued.
Professional honor
They talk about what a person’s honor is, and in relation to his profession. Special attention deserves this concept in the Armed Forces. Here it is collective concept, which determines the warrior’s attitude towards his colleagues, military duty and the Fatherland.
It should be noted that this word used to be found much more often in the army than now. In the troops there was a term “salute”, which at the end of the last century was replaced by the faceless “military salute”. It meant giving honor to another military man. This concept was especially valued in Russian Empire. Defeat for a warrior of those times was a grave disgrace, which not everyone could mentally cope with. For those who want to know what officer honor is, we can simply say - it is a duty to protect the borders and dignity of the country.
What does honor give to a person?
In moral terms, adherence to principles gives a lot - with its help you can overcome even the most difficult and terrible obstacles. Its advantages are freedom from low actions and a sense of self-worth.
How to become a man of honor?
If you think that you are not following the principles, although you would like to, you will have to put in a lot of effort to achieve success. Learn to fulfill obligations and promises. It is important to understand what a matter of honor is - something that must be done. Train yourself not to make impossible promises and keep your word - this is the first step.
Organize psychological trainings. Concerns and fear are something that you should not allow in yourself. The stronger they are, the more likely it is that you will become cowardly in a difficult situation. Working on yourself will help you overcome fear, and if it’s not easy to cope without someone else’s help, you should resort to psychological training to help you become more confident. And remember - only in difficult situations judge whether you have achieved success.
The main thing is self-improvement. If you develop, you will be able to soberly assess opportunities, not only see negative traits character, but also try to win the fight against them, then you will take the right path.
It is customary in society, when seeing a well-dressed person, to say that he looks decent. But does dignity manifest itself only externally? Shouldn't it touch a person's heart and influence his actions? Let's figure out what human dignity is.
Definition of the word "dignity"
In one dictionary, “dignity” means “self-respect, awareness of one’s rights and one’s importance.” Think about which people treat themselves badly? It's rare to find such a person. However, when assessing ourselves, it is important to know how people around us perceive us, how they treat us. What do you think dignity is? Does it matter whether a person is poor or rich, weak or strong?
Agree that the circumstances in which a person finds himself do not affect his dignity. But what if society treats him specially because of his status? This either humiliates his dignity or elevates him among other people. Most often, a person who is in an unenviable position feels that his dignity is being violated. This applies to poor, elderly, sick people who often hear offensive words addressed to them. Why is the human right to dignity not respected?
Honor and dignity
Dignity is often associated with honor and respect. Everything we do for show is insincere, false, contrived. Such behavior does not reflect our dignity, much less our honor. What is honor and dignity? The word “honor” is associated with the concept of dignity, as well as with such human qualities as nobility, truthfulness, and a sense of justice.
How will others evaluate you if they see only mannerism and hypocrisy in you? Shouldn't dignity become part of our personality and influence our actions and words?
Is it possible to honor a physically weak woman? Of course you can! To do this, you need to see her character strengths, her tastes, preferences, views, feelings. By showing respect and honor to a woman, you will raise her dignity. So, we see that honor and dignity are in no way connected with the external, physical and material components of the human personality. Even a crippled beggar can be a worthy person.
Self-esteem
Now we will look at what self-esteem is. In short, it is respect for high moral qualities in oneself. But, if we talk about another person, we try to accept him as he is. Let's not compare him with others and squeeze him into some kind of framework.
To maintain self-respect and self-esteem, you need to have a clear conscience. Otherwise, you will be disappointed in yourself, which will lead to depression and feelings of worthlessness. And don't think too highly of yourself. This is no longer human dignity, but selfishness.
How to respect human dignity?
We have seen what human dignity is, and now it is easier to understand how to respect it. Every person has personal needs. By considering them, we will show that they are as dear to us as they are to him. Whatever happens, you should not criticize, be rude, or insult a person. Ease of communication, warmth in voice, joyful emotional condition- these are important aspects of friendly communication. This is how respect for the feelings of another and the preservation of his human dignity is achieved.
In the old days, people were afraid of losing their honor, they defended it and died for it in duels. Now, of course, there is no such thing, but this does not mean that he is not endowed with this quality. Everyone should know honor. Why does a person need dignity and how not to lose it?
Definition: What is honor
The concept of “honor” means the totality through which he gains self-respect. It includes such as nobility, justice, valor, courage, honesty, high morality and strict moral principles.
In the past, honor was associated not so much with internal qualities as with one’s ability to behave in society, to comply with established norms and rules of behavior. This was required to maintain reputation and respect for one’s person.
The definition of the word "honor" is closely related to the concept of honesty. First of all, a person should not deceive himself. Honor sets limits on what people can allow themselves to do without feeling guilty or remorseful.
What is human dignity
The dignity of a person is his respect for his person, a sense of the importance of himself as an individual, the ability to get out of any situation without overstepping his principles. It is inherent in every person from birth.
The dignity of a person allows him to realize the importance of not only himself, but also those around him. People who have this quality are respectful towards others. Dignity gives a person a sense of self-confidence and self-confidence. The higher we value ourselves, the more potential opportunities open to us.
Honor and what dignity is are somewhat similar. They establish the criteria for a person’s self-respect, as well as the attitude towards his person from society and reflect the moral value of the individual.
Does every person have honor and dignity?
Probably everyone in their life has found themselves in such situations when you experience a feeling of lack of self-esteem and worthlessness. From a legal point of view, the definition of what honor and dignity are assumes that every person is endowed with these qualities at birth. They cannot disappear or disappear during life. The dignity of a person is protected by law; if he is humiliated, the perpetrator faces punishment.
In fact, it happens that people do not feel worthy and believe that there is nothing to respect them for. Most often, this happens when a person commits one or another act for which he subsequently feels remorse. In such cases they say that honor and dignity are lost.
As a rule, after some time a person makes amends, improves his reputation, and again earns the respect of society. He ceases to consider himself a loser and insignificance and removes this definition from himself. At the same time, honor and dignity return to the person.
How to feel like a worthy person
If for some reason you do not feel like a worthy person, you can make efforts to correct this situation. First of all, you need to stop all attempts at humiliating treatment of yourself by others. Only by learning to position yourself correctly in society can you feel worthy of respect.
It is necessary to constantly replenish your knowledge and skills, improve in your profession and other areas of life. The more valuable you are as a specialist, the higher your self-esteem will be, and therefore your dignity.
To feel your honor and dignity, you must take a responsible approach to fulfilling your duty. This applies not only to debt to the state, but also to specific obligations and assignments undertaken. This includes fulfilling family obligations, taking a responsible attitude toward work assignments, keeping promises, and understanding the significance of one’s words and actions.
