Department of Philosophy Public Lecture -FR

Event Details:

The Department of Philosophy will host Dr. Stephanie A.H. Belanger, CD, PhD (Royal Military College) who will be giving a talk entitled, "Military Ethics and Soldier Identity: The Experience of War the Organization and Its Culture."

Abstract: 

“My experience of war made me a better soldier, but I am not sure I have become a better man.” (personal testimony)

Occidental society took ownership for violence: it centralized it, canalized it, and monopolized it into Armed Forces (Cardini 1992). To ensure the control over recourse to force in a multitude of regulations that are imposed by the chain of command and reinforced by a physical and mental training that modulates the body and spirit of military personnel. This paper will first explore the experience of war and its relationship to military ethics. Does a Canadian citizen get enrolled into combat arms to help people or does this person, once enrolled, learns to gain satisfaction from helping people? How to train someone to use violence in order to achieve violence reduction? What are the factors influencing the way these military personnel justify their mission, more precisely, how they argue recourse to violence? The notion of warrior identity; its genesis and development through indoctrination; and its questioning after multiple exposures to combat arms and the return home, are of critical importance to better understand the transforming military ethics in modern warfare, the relationship of the soldier identity with the warrior culture, as military personnel face these transformational challenges.

All are welcome and we hope to see you there!

Building: Toole Hall

Room Number: 3