Cicero's Political Imperative: a Reading of on Duties

This article is a response to the #StrategyAndEthics serial, which asked a group of academics and national security professionals to provide their thoughts on the confluence of ethical considerations, the development of strategy, and the acquit of war. We hope this launches a argue that may one solar day shape policy.

The more than things alter, the more they look…like ancient Greece and Rome. Non long ago the Associated Printing highlighted a burgeoning ethics problem in the U.S. military, which has seen the number of officers dismissed for misconduct triple over the terminal three years.[one] Air Force adulterous scandals, Navy contract fraud, and Ground forces sexual misconduct, gambling, and alcohol cases have all prompted a recent Secretary of Defense to engage a senior general officer as an "ethics czar" with a mandate for planning and executing advisable ethics training at every level of command.[ii]

Does the military have a deep ethics trouble, as some suggest?[3] Why are relatively loftier numbers of officers "falling short of these high standards and expectations," as he has indicated?[iv] Tiptop war machine leaders have argued that we may be seeing the negative consequences of power exhibited by some individuals, and proper management of the Profession of Arms may accept suffered due to the decade's war demands.[5]

If the military machine is to maintain its role as a trustworthy profession serving order, information technology does have to be exceptional.[half dozen] Indeed, it should strive for moral excellence. But to address the ideals challenge, the war machine should move across the typical bureaucratic response. At that place tin can be no magic formula beyond cocky-improvement, instruction, and a commitment to duty as a guide. There are proposed training programs that may or may non exist effective; however, information technology need not be more than complicated than revisiting ancient thought. The overlap that exists between mod military machine values and the fundamental moral virtues of antiquity is powerful. Plato and Cicero, two of the greatest classical thinkers, offering prescient thoughts for preserving moral excellence.

No Strangers to Moral Decay

Just why turn to the classics? Although modernistic states seem to place emphasis on individual liberty over collective virtue, it is like shooting fish in a barrel to come across how individualism defers to the common good in an effective military, where soldiers live together, fight together, and too often die together. Collective well-being takes precedence over individuality considering the mission—and likely sacrifices—need it. Aboriginal thinkers excelled at non only defining that collective virtue, but also at explaining how to orient oneself to it.

What's more, both Plato and Cicero wrote during periods of societal atrophy. They saw the ruling philosopher every bit necessary to stemming the decay of their corresponding constitutions. This may not exist particularly interesting to the armed services officeholder who has no inclination toward either philosophy or ruling a country.[7] It becomes more than intriguing, nonetheless, when one understands that the moral strength of the philosopher makes him a better leader.

When Plato wrote his masterpiece Commonwealth in 380 B.C., information technology would become the foundational piece of work on ancient political philosophy, loosely defined equally the dearest of wisdom as practical to public affairs. Interestingly, Plato aspired to public service as a fellow—he had most likely served in the Peloponnesian State of war with Sparta—but he inverse his heed when he saw the rise to power of the Thirty Tyrants and their subsequent dismantling of Athenian commonwealth.[viii]

Plato fifty-fifty suffered the execution of his wise friend and mentor, Socrates. Socrates' trial and death convinced Plato that "the human being race volition have no respite from evils until those who are actually and truly philosophers acquire political power."[9] The truthful philosopher, of form, is not but ane who is wise but one who lives virtuously, and Plato struggled to reconcile this ideal with the reality of a corrupt Athens.[ten]

Marcus Tullius Cicero later experienced similar political upheaval and business organisation for the Roman Democracy equally he wrote De Officiis (On Duties) in 44 B.C. Cicero, a Roman orator, thinker, lawyer, and senator, had seen the rise of Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey. Though offered a position of power, he refused to join the Triumvirate, citing its unconstitutional nature.

Like Plato, Cicero recognized the corroding tendencies of power, and he believed that arresting such corrosion required "true philosophic greatness of spirit [and] the moral goodness to which Nature most aspires."[11] Witnessing the murder of Caesar in 44 B.C. and the ensuing civil state of war that would ultimately destroy the remnants of the Commonwealth, Cicero nevertheless had renewed hopes for a stable and more equal commonwealth when Octavian and Antony came to power. Such hopes were apace thwarted when Cicero, along with other leaders of those opposed to Caesar and his supporters, was outlawed by the new tyrants. Before Cicero could escape, Octavian and Antony executed him and placed his caput and easily on display in the aforementioned Forum where he had frequently orated or written confronting the regime.

Plato's and Cicero's harsh experiences give new pregnant to the popular phrase toxic leadership. Indeed, both men lived nether tyrannical regimes and defended their lives to restoring virtue to their corresponding governing institutions. Therefore, should we desire to arrest whatsoever decay that we see in our military, nosotros should understand and engage with such texts as intellectual guideposts.

The Virtuous but Reluctant Philosopher-King

Many themes—justice, politics, nature, convention, and the good life—pervade ancient philosophical thought, and ane tin can read the classics as powerful and instructive life manuals. But on the question of leadership specifically, Plato and Cicero arrive articulate that education and virtue are most important. Theirs is a powerful message emphasizing character and leader development.

The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis Davis (Wikimedia)

In Plato's Commonwealth, the graphic symbol of Socrates concerns himself with the question of justice, and the ensuing discussion underpins the moral characteristics he believes rulers should exemplify. Get-go, Socrates addresses the protests of various interlocutors, including the hothead Thrasymachus, who defines justice as "cipher other than the advantage of the stronger."[12] This definition irks Socrates because it implies that "a ruler, insofar as he is a ruler, never makes errors and unerringly decrees what is all-time for himself, and this his subjects must do."[13] Socrates refuses to accept this might-makes-correct argument, and he arrives at a dissimilar definition after closely examining what it means to alive a skilful life.

The challenge for any man being, so, is to rule the tripartite soul through reason, which focuses on a college truth...

Socrates begins an examination of what it means to have arête, or moral excellence and virtue. Detailing a theory of the tripartite soul, he "believes that there are three fundamentally different kinds of desires: appetitive desires for food, drinkable, sexual activity, and the coin with which to acquire them; spirited desires for honor, victory, and expert reputation; and rational desires for cognition and truth."[15] The challenge for any human being beingness, then, is to rule the tripartite soul through reason, which focuses on a higher truth and the Form of the Expert.[16]

Trouble arises when either the appetitive or spirited parts of the soul dominate, for the soul ceases to pursue enlightenment and instead becomes mired in temporal, earthly things. In other words, the soul will tend to stray from moral excellence. It is precisely these licentious and appetitive desires that seem to be burdening higher numbers of war machine officers today.

Rationality is closely tied to wisdom, Socrates' first virtue. An private is "wise because of that pocket-size part of himself that rules in him."[17] Wisdom is the rational component of the soul and comprises "the cognition of what is advantageous for each part and for the whole soul."[18] Quite simply, it controls the appetitive and spirited desires nosotros have by placing reason, deliberation, and long-term goals first. For example, running two miles is painful in the curt-term, just the wisdom of its long-term health benefits tin can override the immediate, appetitive desire to cease the pain.

This is, of course, good news for a defence force establishment that places a premium on professional person instruction and wisdom in the ranks of its leaders, but this may be where more than than a decade of war has caused issues. Instead of continuing to prioritize leaders of character, we accept succumbed to the brusque-term benefits of those who tin can fight and lead at present, with perhaps less business organisation for their moral attributes. It may take been a necessary risk in light of the demands of long wars, but it is fourth dimension to render to placing a premium on the moral development of leaders.

Courage derives from a part of the soul which is "this ability to preserve through everything the correct and police force-inculcated conventionalities near what is to be feared and what isn't."[19] Living courageously has obvious importance for soldiers, whose education and training instills the belief well-nigh what is to be feared.

Third, moderation permeates the whole soul, meaning it governs the human relationship between the appetitive, rational, and spirited desires. Plato, through Socrates, describes moderation as "this understanding between the naturally worse and the naturally better every bit to which of the two is to dominion."[20] As long as the human relationship between the soul'south three components is sound, one need non worry.

If moderation represents the side of the coin that willingly acquiesces to the correct order of the soul, and then justice is the other side that ensures the soul's three parts are rightly ordered. Each component has its proper role, and "justice is doing one's own work and not meddling with what isn't ane'south own."[21] It maintains the well ordering of the human soul and ensures that deliberative faculties rule over unnecessary desires. Together, these virtues and their correct ordering tin pb to a life of happiness, which implies virtuous living.

Much as it orders the human soul, a sense of justice also determines who should rule the city. For Socrates, there can be no question: information technology is the philosopher, or the greatest lover of cognition. He has the wisdom and decency from a lifetime of careful instruction, which has enabled him to turn his soul from darkness to complete enlightenment and goodness. Simply all of this education comes with a catch: he must break from his learning to rule and go a philosopher-king.

What is perhaps foreign according to modern standards—and problematic by Socrates' admission—is that the virtuous and wise philosopher does not in fact wish to lead or dominion; instead, he realizes the fleeting nature of the corporeal, material globe and wishes to philosophize all day. Quite simply, the philosopher loathes ruling—although the less capable members of the city need his leadership. The urban center, of course, has educated him in mathematics, gymnastics, dialectic, and moral excellence with the expectation of having a return on that investment, but considering he is immersed in the pursuit of knowledge, he is reluctant to leave the proficient and happy life for public diplomacy.

It is precisely this contentedness that makes the philosopher the nearly qualified to govern, for he is the best educated and will non fight for the position.[22] His function, notwithstanding, is marked by compulsory—not selfless—service and driven by the gild that instructs the philosopher in his proper role. Socrates repeatedly mentions "forcing" the philosophers to rule, and he notes that "each of them will certainly go to dominion equally to something compulsory."[23] The philosopher'south desire not to dominion indicates that an earnest reluctance to atomic number 82 may be virtuous and salubrious; information technology indicates wariness about the corrupting influences of positional ability. By modern standards, this is tough to reconcile with the proven benefits of an all-volunteer strength. But peradventure, today's war machine officers tin can learn from antiquity the value of a tempered ambition for command that is motivated not by self merely past placing the proficient of the arrangement and its people first.[24] Inculcating military machine culture with this idea requires reorienting on service values (the Army'south values of leadership, duty, respect, selfless-service, award, integrity, and personal courage are among them), which are tightly leap with the ethics of antiquity. Focusing on these works equally a education point of leader development allows the states to movement beyond modern service values as simple catchphrases and understand that they are grounded in enduring philosophical masterpieces.

The Dutiful Philosopher-Leader

Not surprisingly, an emphasis on virtues likewise permeates De Officiis, which some scholars have said is "Cicero's Republic."[25] For Cicero, ethics and service were also inextricably linked.[26] A skillful man follows the principles of justice in doing no impairment to others and in observing the common interest.[27] Once again, reason and wisdom must be preeminent in the human soul, for "in no other item are we farther removed from the nature of beasts."[28] The tension all the same exists between following justice and pursuing private advantage, but a good person resolves information technology with an adherence to ethical duties.[29] In describing moral goodness, Cicero shared with Plato utmost deference to the central virtues, and he adds to justice and wisdom the virtues of decorum, respect for holding, and greatness of spirit.[30]

While Plato seems more than intent on developing wise leaders who are compelled to dominion for the common proficient, his Roman follower Cicero elaborates in suggesting that a sense of duty and social obligation—not compulsion—should underlie a distinct service ethic of the leader-statesman. Although Plato makes no mention of the virtue duty in Republic, Cicero later addresses this of import component to statesmanship in De Officiis, a work that nicely complements Plato's Republic by emphasizing the social obligation that comes with wisdom. This should resonate nicely with the military officer who pursues lifelong learning.

...knowledge can be of no worth if it does not motivate a sense of duty to impart that knowledge on behalf of safeguarding human being interest...

Certainly, Cicero does not deny that wisdom is the most important of the virtues, merely he expands upon Plato by arguing that speculative knowledge (i.e., philosophy, or love of wisdom) can be of no worth if information technology does not motivate a sense of duty to impart that knowledge on behalf of safeguarding homo interest. Cicero is lucid in his critique:

For [philosophers] secure one sort of justice, to be sure, in that they do no positive wrong to anyone, but they fall into the opposite injustice; for hampered past their pursuit of learning they go out to their fate those whom they ought to defend. And and then, Plato thinks, they volition non even assume their borough duties except nether compulsion. Only in fact it were better that they assume them of their ain accord; for an action intrinsically right is simply merely on condition that it is voluntary.[31]

In other words, a leader can exist of little worth to others if he is content philosophizing constantly. The truthful calling is not marked by compulsion, as it is for the philosopher-king; instead, it is driven by the innate desire that the philosopher feels to use his wisdom for the betterment of humankind. Furthermore, when deciding "where virtually of our moral obligation is due, land would come start."[32] The imperative to employ i'due south knowledge for proficient in public affairs is articulate, and this above all else should drive the contemporary officeholder'southward want to pb, equally well.

But as Cicero's emphasis on the service ethic is directly translatable to military leaders, then too is his caution regarding the perils of appetite and power. Personal advantage is constantly in conflict with justice, every bit "the great majority of people…when they autumn prey to ambition for either military machine or civil authority, are carried away by it so completely that they quite lose sight of the claims of justice."[33] They cease to do their chore, and the constitution of the soul and the city lose their right order. Cicero cautions the states against the "ambition for glory; for information technology robs united states of liberty, and in defense of freedom a high-souled man should stake everything."[34]

Cicero seems to have the same trepidation towards positional authority that Plato expressed when he described the reluctance of the philosopher to lead. It is truthful that an officeholder should lead for the skillful of his followers, but "one ought not to seek military authority; nay, rather it ought sometimes to be declined, [and] sometimes to exist resigned."[35] The message still resonates: the perks of positional authority and opportunities for glory and fame are powerful motivators, still they can sway one'south moral compass from selflessness. But a constant grooming of the virtuous soul and the altruistic desire to use wisdom for good tin counter such temptation. This requires a commitment to education, which yields officers with excellent character.

Education, upstanding behavior, and skillful leadership are inextricably linked in artifact, and they continue to be for today'south leaders.

In short, Cicero believes public service is a calling whereby the naturally selfish individual yields to the common expert. Moral obligation is and so important that "in a higher place all we must decide who and what manner of men we wish to be and what calling in life we would follow."[36] Self-interest is the corollary to this idea, for "through some preoccupation or self-involvement they are so absorbed that they suffer those to be neglected whom it is their duty to protect."[37] But with the aid of education and knowledge of things human and divine, "it necessarily follows that duty which is connected with the social obligation is the most important duty."[38] Pedagogy, ethical behavior, and good leadership are inextricably linked in antiquity, and they continue to be for today's leaders.

Education orients the soul towards rationality and what is adept—this is Plato'due south greatest contribution. Cicero goes further past infusing education with the duty imperative, which binds the wise leader to the deport of public diplomacy for the collective good. Certainly, leadership for the collective expert, not individual gain, must go along to motivate military leaders today. Education is not only skillful for expertise in the Profession of Arms, it is too necessary for the moral excellence and arête that Western classical philosophers stressed in grapheme development.

The Classics in Every Cargo Pocket?

Recent ethical lapses seem to have thrown the Department of Defence into a tizzy. What shall exist washed? Is there one-size-fits-all training that tin heal what ails the institution? These responses are natural; our profession and Oath of Office need that nosotros uphold a trust with the American people and fulfill a serious social obligation in supporting and defending the U.Due south. Constitution. To groom character, however, there tin be no canned solution.

People make mistakes; this much is true. What makes ancient thought so relevant is that contending with human nature and the unnecessary desires of the human soul has ever been, and will continue to exist, a struggle. "If men were angels," said James Madison urging ratification of the Constitution in 1788, "no regime would be necessary."[39] Past extension, no defence appliance would exist necessary to protect the states from each other, either.

But information technology is likewise true that lately ethical transgressions accept been peculiarly egregious, and their increasing numbers have exceeded the statistical norm.[40] Military leaders must continue to uphold public confidence with exemplary behavior. This requires renewed delivery to education, self-comeback, reason, and duty. Placing blanket ideals grooming aside, nosotros can start to relearn virtuous living by picking upwardly copies of Republic and De Officiis. Indeed as professionals, nosotros have an obligation to self-train on these classic works and groom our own moral excellence, for the trust of the lodge we serve depends on it. Education and cultural modify, of form, accept fourth dimension, merely nosotros must recognize the ageless importance of virtues and their unmistakable commonality with modern service values.

In the poignant concluding pages of Anton Myrer's classic military fiction In one case an Hawkeye, the dying protagonist Sam Damon wisely advises his protégé that "if it comes to a choice between being a proficient soldier and a proficient human being—try to be a good homo."[41] Much has been made recently of revisiting the basics in our warfighting functions. There is something to be gained from revisiting the basics in morality, every bit well.

Todd Hertling is a U.S. Army officer and a onetime Banana Professor in American politics at the United States Military Academy. The opinions expressed are his own and practice non reflect the official position of the U.South. Army, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Regime.

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Notes:

[1]  Lolita C. Baldor, "Misconduct Forces More Soldiers Out," Associated Printing, February 17, 2014, http://news.yahoo.com/ap-sectional-misconduct-forces-more than-soldiers-145434065.html (accessed March 7, 2014).

[2] Jennifer Hlad, "Hagel Appoints Top Ethics Officeholder," Stars and Stripes, March 25, 2014, http://www.stripes.com/news/hagel-appoints-meridian-ethics-officer-1.274483 (accessed December 10, 2016).

[three] Ibid.

[4] Robert Burns, "Hagel Seeks Answers to Military Ideals Crisis," Associated Press, February 7, 2014 http://bigstory.ap.org/commodity/hagel-seeks-answers-armed forces-ideals-crunch (accessed March 7, 2014).

[5] Baldor, "Misconduct Forces More Soldiers Out." Come across likewise Leonard Wong and Stephen J. Gerras, Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession (Carlisle, PA: U.South. Army War College Printing, 2015).

[half dozen] Armed services service members must be careful not to jeopardize the high caste of trust that the American public has in them. Currently, seventy-half-dozen percent of Americans have either a "swell deal" or "quite a lot" of conviction in the military, which leads other institutions of government. See Gallup, "Conviction in Institutions," (1-iv June 2013), http://www.gallup.com/poll/1597/conviction-institutions.aspx (accessed March vii, 2014).

[7] Socrates spends considerable fourth dimension responding to the critique waged against philosophers that "the greatest number become cranks, non to say completely vicious, while those who seem completely decent are rendered useless to the city considering of the studies you recommend." See Plato, Republic, trans. G.Chiliad.A. Grube (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Co., Inc., 1992), 487d.

[8] Most sources on Plato'southward biography are relatively poor, but his Seventh Letter of the alphabet is generally accustomed equally accurate. Plato describes how "these [Thirty] men made the former constitution seem like a gilt age by comparison." See "Introduction" to Plato, Republic, ix.

[ix] Ibid.

[10] There is a general lack of agreement among historians and political philosophers regarding when the autonomous Greek metropolis-state culminated. While Plato may have perceived Athens as decadent, some modernistic scholars see a time that overlapped with his life—specifically the period ca. 400-322 B.C.—when the Athenian polis was relatively stable and required few structural adjustments. According to other academics, the decline of Athens came in late antiquity and gradually began under Diocletian'south reign in Advertising 284. Run into Mogens Herman Hansen, Polis: An Introduction to the Ancient Greek City-Country (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), fifty. Equally such, the mass and elite positions were sufficiently counterbalanced during Plato's time. See Josiah Ober, Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens: Rhetoric, Ideology, and the Power of the People (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991), 55.

[11] Cicero, De Officiis, trans. Walter Miller (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1913), Nine.65, http://www.constitution.org/rom/de_officiis.htm (accessed December x, 2016).

[12] Plato, Republic, 338c.

[13] Ibid., 341a.

[xiv] Christopher D. Kolenda, "What is Leadership? Some Classical Ideas," in Leadership: The Warrior's Art, ed. Christopher D. Kolenda (Carlisle, PA: The Army War College Foundation Printing, 2001), 3-25.

[fifteen] Plato, Republic, xv.

[sixteen] Ibid., VII.

[17] Ibid., 442d.

[18] Ibid., 442c.

[19] Ibid., 430b.

[20] Ibid., 432a.

[21] Ibid., 433a.

[22] Ibid., 520d.

[23] Ibid., 520e.

[24] This is not to say that all ambition is "bad." Ambition may, in fact, exist on a spectrum with greater and lesser moral virtue. For a description of what information technology means to have "an honorable and just class of grand ambition," see Robert Faulkner, The Case for Greatness: Honorable Ambition and Its Critics (New Oasis, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 6.

[25] Cicero, of form, also wrote his ain Commonwealth (De Republica) from 54 to 52 B.C. Scholar A.A. Long is intentionally provocative in suggesting that Cicero's "Republic" is all-time represented where the reader would least wait information technology—in his work De Officiis, not De Republica. Come across A.A. Long, "Cicero's Politics in De Officiis," in Justice and Generosity: Studies in Hellenistic Social and Political Philosophy: Proceedings of the Sixth Symposium Hellenisticum, ed. A. Laks and M. Schofield (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 213-40.

[26] Melissa Lane, "Ancient Political Philosophy," The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Fall 2011 ed., ed. Edward N. Zalta, http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2011/entries/ancient-political/ (accessed March seven, 2014).

[27] Cicero, De Officiis, X.31.

[28] Ibid., XVI.50.

[29] Lane, "Aboriginal Political Philosophy."

[xxx] Ibid.

[31] Cicero, De Officiis, Nine.28.

[32] Ibid., XVII.58.

[33] Ibid., I.26.

[34] Ibid., XX.68.

[35] Ibid.

[36] Ibid., XXXII.117,

[37] Ibid., IX.28.

[38] Ibid., XLIII.153.

[39] "Publius" [Madison], "Federalist Paper No. 51," http://world wide web.constitution.org/fed/federa51.htm (accessed March 7, 2014).

[40] In 2010, misconduct forced 119 Ground forces officers out of service, and this number was consistent with trends of the past decade. By contrast, the number was 387 in 2013. Baldor, "Misconduct Forces More Soldiers Out."

[41] Anton Myrer, Once an Eagle (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1968), 815.

Cicero's Political Imperative: a Reading of on Duties

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