The Virtue of Truthfulness and the Military Profession: Reconciling Honesty with the Requirement to Deceive During War
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University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations 2016 The irV tue Of Truthfulness And The iM litary Profession: Reconciling Honesty With The Requirement To Deceive During War John W. Bauer University of South Carolina Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Bauer, J. W.(2016). The Virtue Of Truthfulness And The Military Profession: Reconciling Honesty With The Requirement To Deceive During War. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/3957 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE VIRTUE OF TRUTHFULNESS AND THE MILITARY PROFESSION: RECONCILING HONESTY WITH THE REQUIREMENT TO DECEIVE DURING WAR by John W. Bauer Bachelor of Science United States Military Academy, 1995 Master of Arts University of South Carolina, 2012 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2016 Accepted by: Christopher Tollefsen, Major Professor Justin Weinberg, Committee Member Jennifer Frey, Committee Member Christopher Toner, Committee Member Cheryl L. Addy, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School © Copyright by John W. Bauer, 2016 All Rights Reserved. ii DEDICATION To my wife, to whom I owe not only my deepest respect and admiration, but also my inspiration and purpose. I am totally yours. iii ABSTRACT The U.S. military regards truthfulness as a virtue, a quality captured in the terms ‘honor’ and ‘integrity.’ At the same time, military doctrine does little to hide the fact that military operations should endeavor to deceive the enemy. How can these two ideas, seemingly in conflict with each other, be reconciled? This dissertation examines the viability of the absolutist claim implicit in the term ‘truthfulness’ – namely, that to be truth-full, one must never lie, even to one’s enemies. In order for this absolute prohibition to be consistent with certain instances of allowable deception, lying and truthfulness, I argue, must remain conceptually distinct from deceptive acts and the intent to deceive. Taking this as a starting point, this dissertation sketches out guidelines for the virtue of truthfulness in the military profession. Taking as a given the U.S. military’s absolute rule against lying, which I conclude also includes the prohibition of perfidy, equivocation, and strict mental reservation, I explore the Just War Tradition and the absolutist tradition against lying. While the absolute rule against lying has been for the Just War Tradition a point of contention, both traditions have consistently condemned perfidy, or acts of bad faith. Likewise, perfidy is currently prohibited in the international law of war conventions. Yet perfidy – that is, acts of bad faith – I argue, are equivalent to lies, since every perfidious act extends an invitation to mutual trust insincerely or falsely. Each lie does essentially the same. In a lie, the speaker extends an invitation to mutual trust by communicating in the assertive context. The liar, however, is duplicitous and his invitation insincere, since the liar is making an assertion contrary to what he believes to iv be true. When used instrumentally to deceive, lying and perfidy cause a given deceptive act to be illicit, always and without exception. In contrast, deceptive acts that do not extend a false invitation to trust leave open the possibility that they may be properly justified, such as in war. Armed with this fundamental understanding of what constitutes a lie, this dissertation attempts to take a first step toward identifying truthfulness as a virtue and proposes, in the practice of military deception, that one should never lie. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………………..… iii ABSTRACT..…………………………………………………...……………….….…...... iv CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………....…... 1 1.1 DEFINITION OF TRUTHFULNESS……..…….…………………………….……. 3 1.2 DEFINITION OF DECEPTION…….…..……………………………………..….. 6 1.3 DEFINITION OF LYING………..…………….………………..……………….. 9 1.4 ONE RELATED DEFINITION: PERFIDY………..…………………………….... 13 1.5 CHAPTER SUMMARY………...………………………………………………. 18 1.6 MORAL ABSOLUTES………...……………………………………………….. 20 CHAPTER TWO: MILITARY DECEPTION THEORY AND ETHICS……….…………….......... 23 2.1 CLASSICAL MILITARY DECEPTION IN THE LATIN WEST……………………... 25 2.2 THE CLASSICAL LANGUAGE OF DECEPTION IN WAR………………………… 28 2.3 THE JUST WAR TRADITION AND JUSTIFIED DECEPTION IN WAR…………..… 33 2.4 DECEPTION IN MODERN MILITARY THEORY …………………………..….… 35 2.5 A CRITIQUE OF BELL AND WHALEY’S HIDING VERSUS SHOWING….……….. 42 2.6 INTERNATIONAL LAW AND CONTEMPORARY DECEPTION DOCTRINE….…….. 46 2.7 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………… 48 CHAPTER THREE: THE JUST WAR TRADITION AND THE RULE AGAINST PERFIDY.........…. 50 3.1 FIDES AND PERFIDIA…………………………………………………………. 52 3.2 CICERO: ONE MUST ALWAYS PRESERVE FAITH WITH ENEMIES……………... 56 3.3 ST. AMBROSE AND THE DISGRACE OF BREAKING FAITH……….……………. 58 vi 3.4 ST. AUGUSTINE AND KEEPING FAITH TO SECURE THE PEACE……………….. 59 3.5 GENTILIS AND WHAT CONSTITUTES BREACH OF FAITH….….…………….… 61 3.6 SUAREZ’S PROPOSED EXCEPTIONS TO KEEPING FAITH.……………………… 63 3.7 GROTIUS’S RULE AGAINST PERFIDY…………..…………………………….. 67 3.8 A CRITIQUE OF THE GROTIAN RULE………………….……………………… 73 3.9 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………… 74 CHAPTER FOUR: THE MORAL DUTY TO ACT ONLY IN GOOD FAITH……………………. 77 4.1 SPINOZA ON ACTING IN GOOD FAITH..………..…………………………….. 78 4.2 FREE MEN AND THE UNREASONABLENESS OF ACTING DOLO MALO……….... 80 4.3 GARRETT’S REJECTION OF THE ABSOLUTIST INTERPRETATION…………..…. 85 4.4 KANT’S CONDEMNATION OF PROMISES MADE IN BAD FAITH ………………. 88 4.5 WHY PROMISE KEEPING CANNOT BE A PERFECT DUTY……..…………….... 91 4.6 GROTIUS AND TRUTHFULNESS AS A SPECIAL CASE OF GOOD FAITH……….... 96 4.7 PROBLEMS WITH THE GROTIAN POSITION …………………………………… 99 4.8 CONCLUSION……………….………………………………………………. 102 CHAPTER FIVE: THE ABSOLUTIST TRADITION AND THE RULE AGAINST LYING…...…….. 104 5.1 WHY A RIGHT TO THE TRUTH IS NOT NECESSARY FOR A LIE..…….…..……. 105 5.2 WHY THE INTENT TO DECEIVE IS NOT NECESSARY FOR A LIE…………..….. 108 5.3 ARISTOTLE AND LIES AS A VIOLATION OF CONVENTION………………….… 113 5.4 AUGUSTINE: LIES ARE DUPLICITIOUS……………………………………….. 116 5.5 AQUINAS AND LYING AS A VIOLATION OF THE NATURAL LAW..…………… 119 5.6 KANT: LIES ANNIHILATE HUMAN DIGNITY…………………………………. 124 5.7 CONCLUSION: LIES ULTIMATELY ARE UNREASONABLE……….…………… 129 vii CHAPTER SIX: OBJECTIONS TO THE RULE AGAINST LYING………………….………….. 130 6.1 WHITE LIES AND SO-CALLED HARMLESS LIES……………………………… 131 6.2 HALF-TRUTHS………………………………………………………………. 137 6.3 NEWMAN AND EQUIVOCATION………..…………………………….……… 139 6.4 MENTAL RESERVATION AND THE PROBLEM OF FULL DISCLOSURE……….... 145 6.5 THE MURDERER AT THE DOOR…………..…………………………………. 150 6.6 MISGIVINGS: KORSGAARD AND MACINTYRE..………..……………………. 155 6.7 CONCLUSION…………..…………………………………………………… 159 CONCLUSION: TRUTHFULNESS IN THE MILITARY PROFESSION……..…………………... 163 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………..... 174 viii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION The similarity between the words ‘honor’ and ‘honesty’ is far from accidental. Both trace their origins to the Latin honos, a rather rich term that encompassed not only respectability but also rectitude or moral goodness. This ancient sense of honor, relating less to glory or recognition than to lasting esteem earned through a reputation for right conduct, has since been embraced by the Western Military Tradition and the military profession in general.1 It is perhaps for these reasons that in the lexicon of modern American military professionals, the foundation of ‘honor’ is the virtue of honesty.2 When the first U.S. national military academy was established at West Point in 1802, the institution itself was first conceived as a place that would inspire young military officers to embrace honorable living. According to Morris Schaff, author of a memoir entitled The Spirit of Old West Point, the institution from its founding was designed to promote not only the ideals of courage and obedience to authority but also “the virtue of absolute honesty,” characteristics that Shaff says reflect “the character of [George] Washington and the best society at the time of the revolution.”3 Today, the 1 Lewis Sorley, Honor Bright (United States of America: McGraw Hill, 2009), 2. See also U.S. Department of Defense. Joint Publication (JP) 1, Doctrine for the Armed Forces of the United States (Washington, D.C., March, 2013): B-2. According to U.S. military doctrine, the five principal virtues of the profession of arms are duty, honor, courage, integrity, and selfless service. Honor and integrity are directly related to the virtue of truthfulness. 2 Under the definition of ‘honor’ in U.S. joint military doctrine, it states that military professionals should “never lie, cheat, or steal.” U.S. Department of Defense. Joint Publication (JP) 1-0, Doctrine for the Armed Forces of the United States (Washington, D.C., March, 2013): B-2. 3 Honor Bright, 9. 1 Honor Code, a code under which every West Point cadet is bound, is captured in one simple sentence: “A Cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.”4 The code itself stands as both a call to abide by the virtue of truthfulness but also a rigorous standard of conduct.5 Similar expressions of the same code have for decades been present