March 10, 2008
Contact Rick Kyte at 608-796-3704 or rlkyte@viterbo.edu
MILITARY COURAGE AND REVENGE THE SUBJECT OF “PAYBACK” PRESENTATION BY GEORGETOWN PROFESSOR AT VITERBO MARCH 27
LA CROSSE, Wis. – The thirst for revenge seems to be one of the more primitive and noxious sentiments of war, yet is there a morally permissible kind of anger in war that is part of the courage necessary to face battle?
Georgetown University professor and former U.S. Naval Academy Distinguished Chair in Ethics Nancy Sherman will explore this question as she presents “Payback” at 7 p.m. in the Viterbo University Fine Arts Center Main Theatre Thursday, March 27.
Sherman will examine this question using both Aristotelian and Stoic views of military courage, in light of illustrations from the current war. The event is part of the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership’s Spring Lecture Series.
Sherman’s interests in the military grew out of a three-year stint at the United States Naval Academy where she served as the Distinguished Chair in Ethics. In that role, she lectured widely to military audiences, including ROTC units, military academies, bases, and war colleges. She also taught at Yale for seven years. In 1998, she took her current post at Georgetown University, where she is a philosophy professor and an adjunct law professor.
Her work on military ethics has been featured in the Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, San Diego Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Providence Journal, Lingua Franca, the U.S. Naval Academy’s Shipmate and The Philosopher’s Magazine. She also has appeared on PBS, MSNBC, and Fox News. She lectures widely at universities, institutes, and war colleges in the U.S. and abroad.