John Jay Institute at the Pentagon: Faculty Advocates Objective Values
Washington, D.C., February 15, 2012. Today Dr. Greg Jesson, John Jay Institute Affiliated Scholar, delivered a lecture for the Ethical Leadership Series hosted by the Office of the Chief of Chaplains at the U.S. Pentagon.
Speaking to a group of senior officers of all branches of the military services and Department of Defense civilian personnel, Dr. Jesson addressed the topic of character and leadership. In his lecture, entitled "The Barbarians Are Inside the Gate: Relativism Undermining Character and Leadership," Dr. Jesson argued that a crisis of American character may be the single most clear and present danger to national security.
Drawing upon insights from the ancients including Homer, Socrates, and Aristotle; as well as from military leaders like U.S. Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall; Dr. Jesson made a sobering and compelling case for the armed services of the United States to focus on the essentials of character formation in their training and doctrine, especially among the lowest ranks of its leadership. In this brave new world of asymmetrical warfare, sergeants and lieutenants, perhaps even more often than general officers, now make spur-of-the-moment, life-or-death ethical decisions of global geopolitical consequence.
Dr. Greg Jesson is a professor of philosophy at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa and an affiliated scholar and seminar director of the John Jay Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This coming summer, Dr. Jesson joins the John Jay Institute's Saratoga Fellows Program faculty to teach young military officers character-based ethics. More about the Saratoga Fellows Program is found here.
