Noontime Notions – Ethics and Moral Reasoning in War

The Noontime Notions continues on May 21 with Roger Herbert’s presentation, “Ethics and Moral Reasoning in War”.  The program will begin at noon in the Rogow Room at the Transylvania County Library. Noontime Notions programs feature authors, performers, and presenters providing engaging notions for consideration, enjoyment, and discovery.   The program is made possible by the Friends of the Library and will last approximately one hour.

Governments have long understood the need to prepare their armies materially for war. Over the past century, some states have also made impressive advances in preparing their troops psychologically. Regrettably, however, states have been slow to recognize their obligations to prepare service members morally for the ethical complexities of war.  As a result, too many men and women, having put their bodies and souls on the line for their countries, have returned home morally injured or worse, morally disfigured.

In the early 1990s, Congress recognized this shortfall and directed each of the Service Academies to design and teach an ethics curriculum.  From 2018 to 2021, Roger Herbert directed the US Naval Academy’s ethics program. In his most recent book, Ethics at War (with co-authors Deane-Peter Baker, Rufus Black, and Iain King), Roger describes the moral deliberation framework that the Naval Academy formally adopted in 2021.  His talk will summarize this model.

While the purpose of USNA’s moral deliberation framework is to prepare future naval officers to make good and, when necessary, expeditious moral choices in war, the model is built on conventional moral theory.  It’s a framework, therefore, that we can all apply to the routine ethical challenges we all confront.

Roger Herbert holds a BS from Davidson College, an MA from the Naval Postgraduate School, an MS from the National War College, and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.  Following a 26-year career as a naval officer, Roger served as Director of The Outdoor Academy in Pisgah Forest (2015-2018) and the Robert T. Herres Distinguished Military Professor of Ethics at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland (2018-2021). He currently lives in Brevard with his wife, Gretchen.  He’s a Research Fellow at Arizona State University’s Future Security Initiative and serves on the Board of Trustees for Brevard College and Eagle’s Nest Foundation.