Does honor truly exist apart from other men? What would it mean to live honorably if my entire life was spent on an otherwise deserted island among no other people or animals? What could I do to bring dishonor to myself? I suppose I could lie to myself. I could tell myself that I feel satiated when I'm actually hungry. I could tell myself it's night when in fact the sun is shining. Yet, such lies told to one's self might be more a sign of insanity than dishonor. The same might be said of any self-depredating behavior or actions. Sane men automatically act in ways that attempt to maximize their own physical well-being. It appears to me that honor and morality arise through our relationships with other living beings, rather than existing as an innate, self-standing quality of an isolated human mind.
I do know what Adam might be driving at. I'm also looking for the same source of virtue. I have a similar belief that there exists a self-standing mark of quality, or innate first virtue within a man that would continue to flourish even though he would be the last complex living creature on earth. However, I doubt that it should be termed Honor.
I've come to think that the one virtue that might remain in a man cast-adrift from others is a form of self-love. If any human is worthy of my love, by deduction I as a human, must also be worthy of my own love. We are usually wary of talking openly about self-love. It gives the impression of conceit, or self-centeredness. Yet, the self-love I'm speaking of here is far from a conceit. Since I know myself implicitly, I know all the personal faults and guilts that others might only guess at.
"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that one is loved; loved for oneself, or better yet, loved despite oneself."
Victor Hugo makes the point that love exists "despite" our own unworthyness to be loved. However, an honest self-love is self-regulating in nature. I shame myself for my own failings and I reward myself for my own accomplishments. I prod myself to try to understand this world and reprimand myself for failing to do so.
I'm my own best friend in many respects, though I suspect that this friendship is wavering when I make myself too busy to listen to my own thoughts. I've come to think that self-love might be a necessary, thought not a sufficient condition for all of the Virtues. To go to one's grave never having come to love one's self would be a tragedy. In the words of Soren Kierkegaard:
"To cheat one's self out of love is the greatest deception of which there is no reparation in either time or eternity."
My ideas on this topic are far from bound and shelved. I've been thinking about this subject for a good many years. I'm forever searching for a more full understanding of how the virtues arise. I'd be pleased to hear the comments of others on this matter.
Michael