War and the Human Condition (Quest 1)

How does war shape the human condition? In the present era, Western countries are generally sheltered from war. But this is an anomaly. Most human societies have had to reckon with war and grapple with its effects. Moreover, they have tended to regard this reckoning as important for developing their own way of life. Without that reckoning, their societies might atrophy, ossify, and slide into decadence. The resurgence of concerns about the potential for open warfare between China, Russia, and the United States demonstrates the need to consider war’s effects and the persistent questions its possibility poses for human societies. This discussion-driven course explores war’s effects on the human condition through a variety of disciplines and approaches. To study these effects we draw from philosophy, literature, ancient and modern history, and illustrate these effects through a number of literary sources, including drama, novels, memoirs, and film. We begin by examining the debate as to whether war is always immoral or whether we can and should set out to abolish it, as discussed, among others, by Elizabeth Anscombe, Immanuel Kant, and Carl Schmitt. With this theoretical edifice, we turn to the historical role the soldier has played in a variety of societies, and examine the phenomenology of warfare in works of literature. We pursue several key questions: which virtues and character-traits does it provide that are not available in peace? Does war provide special capacities for leadership? Are the habits and skills gained in wartime transferable to peacetime? How do modern technological developments change the character of soldiers and combatants? Among other authors, we will read Homer, Plutarch, Jean Lartéguy, and Winston Churchill, to reflect on the nature of statesmanship, reckon with the significance of war crimes, and ponder the consequences of victory, defeat, and captivity for the soldier’s character and for the societies to which he belongs. To conclude the course, we examine the fraught questions of civil-military relations and discuss war, spirituality, and transcendence through critically-acclaimed films.