The Dilemma of Cosmopolitan Soldiering

Abstract

The most famous essays by American writers on heroism, especially in military matters, inordinately deal with the demise of heroism — the threats to it, and to the attendant ‘martial virtues’, from the dominant social forces and ideals.¹ Heroism, it seems, is something we are always in danger of losing, because we are always inclined to underestimate its importance. Hence the task of the philosopher is to remind us of that importance, to explain to us why the spectre of an un-heroic world should strike us as so impoverished, ethically, aesthetically and politically.