To Do for Honor What Hobbes Did for Justice: On Agonism’s Contribution to Civility

As Hobbes attempted to reconcile self-interest with the self-disadvantaging constraints of justice, this essay attempts to reconcile self-interest with the self-disadvantaging norms of honor. We imagine the honor equivalents to Hobbes’ rational individuals in a state of nature, and describe a multistage process that begins in total war and ends with honorable contest. Applying Hobbes’ strategy to ethical agonism illuminates how agonistic honorableness moderates conflict and builds respect between opponents. These features are especially beneficial in spaces (such as pluralistic democracies) where we should want and expect an unceasing contention of ideas—a fact demonstrated by agonistic honor’s unique and plausible contribution to theories of civil discourse