henry_flower: A melancholy wolf (Default)
henry_flower ([personal profile] henry_flower) wrote2014-12-21 10:14 pm
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'when a tradesman was falsely accused of misrepresentation, dishonesty, or neglect in his business,

'when a tradesman was falsely accused of misrepresentation, dishonesty, or neglect in his business, it was an attack upon his honour, which in this case was outraged solely by what he suffered, and that he could only retrieve it by punishing his aggressor and making him retract.

Here, by a homonymy, he was foisting civic honour, which is otherwise called good name, and which may be outraged by libel and slander, on to the conception of knightly honour, also called point d’honneur, which may be outraged by insult.

And since an attack on the former cannot be disregarded, but must be repelled by public disproof, so, with the same justification, an attack on the latter must not be disregarded either, but it must be defeated by still greater insult and a duel.'

-- Arthur Schopenhauer. The Art of Controversy.

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