English language
Published Dec. 31, 2010 by W.W. Norton.
"How does moral progress happen? How are societies brought to repudiate immoral customs they have long accepted? In The Honor Code, Kwame Anthony Appiah explores a long-neglected engine of reform. Examining moral revolutions in the past—and campaigns against abhorrent practices today—he shows that appeals to reason, morality, or religion aren’t enough to ring in reform. Practices are eradicated only when they come into conflict with honor."
I was sympathetic to the thesis and already liked the author, but ended the book unconvinced. It's an interesting idea, but his arguments and examples are too much correlation and not enough causation. I wish he'd develop this a little more and try again.
