Behavioral Codes
In many societies in which a specialized warrior class exists, specific codes of conduct (ethical code or honour code) are established to ensure that the warrior class is not corrupted or otherwise dangerous to the rest of society. Common features include valuing honour in the forms of faith, loyalty and courage.
Examples include the following:
- Ethical codes of the early Germanic Peoples, as well as Prussian virtues
- Behavioral codes of discipline in the Spartan army.
- Medieval knights' code of chivalry;
- Samoa's Toa class, which used a warrior code known as fa'aaloalo (Respect) that is still in exisistance today;
- Kshatriya code of Dharma in India;
- Khalsa code of saint Soldiers in Sikhism;
- Sesok-ogye code of Hwarang in Korea;
- Japan's samurai class, which uses a warrior code known as Bushido (The Way Of The Warrior)
- Xiá in China; and
- French Foreign Legion Code d'Honneur, still in use today.
Warriors' honour is dependent on following the code. Common virtues in warrior codes are mercy, courage and loyalty.
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Famous quotes containing the word codes:
“We must trust infinitely to the beneficent necessity which shines through all laws. Human nature expresses itself in them as characteristically as in statues, or songs, or railroads, and an abstract of the codes of nations would be an abstract of the common conscience.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)