Yes, Virginia, there is an actual job called "military ethicist." George Lucas Jr. (!), a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, has recently published a book about the role of academic social scientists in military actions. He was interviewed yesterday by the Chronicle of Higher Education about an ongoing debate about the morality of anthropologists participating in the military's Human Terrain System program.
Mr. Lucas, remarking on the value of philosophical advice on military decisions, comments:
In the 1950s, when [the medical community] discovered that they were
involved in ethically thorny issues that were outside their domain of expertise,
they called in philosophers and theologians.
GIVE ME CREDIT PLEASE
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