1. Combat Ethics: Saving Private Ryan
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

2. Overview Defining Moments Principal Themes
Save the family?
Take the radar station?
Kill the prisoner
Disobeying orders
The sniper
Principal Themes
Consequentalist calculations
Character and Virtue
Courage
Compassion
Duty
Redemption
Appendix: The Cast of Characters
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

3. Defining Moments Save the family? What to do about the dying soldier?
Take the bunker?
Kill the prisoner?
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

4. Save the Family?
Play 51:40 [7 – pool]
—saving the little girl Chaos—Caparzo—“the decent thing”
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

5. Save the Family--2
To save the trapped family? To take the girl? To give the girl to the soldiers?
CarpazoL “She reminds me of my niece. The decent thing is to take her down the road to the next town.” Reply: “ We’re not here to do the decent thing.”
When should we be compassionate?
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

6. Save the Family--3 Play 56:45.
Capt. Miller: “That’s why we can’t take children”—pointing to dead soldier.
Compassionate, humanitarian gesture led to death of soldier.
Should they have tried to help the family?
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

7. Heading toward Ramelle
Take the Radar Station?
Play 1:24:20 (Chapter 12)
Take out the machine gun nest? This isn’t our mission. Unnecessary risk?
Heading toward Ramelle
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

8. The Radar Station--2 Balancing considerations
What will directly help the mission?
What we help other Allied soldiers who come this way?
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

9. Kill the Prisoner Play 1:33:20
Upham: “Are you going to let them kill him? Sir, it’s not right.”
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

10. Kill the Prisoner--2
An added twist with this decision—we later see that the freed soldier returns to fight against them again
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(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

11. Kill the Prisoner--3 Play: 1:40:10
Miller: “I’ve changed some. My wife might not recognize me.... But if it earns me the right to get back to my wife…Every man I kill, the farther away from home I feel.”
What would you do?
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

12. Disobeying Orders Reiben threatens to walk away from the mission
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(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

13. Disobeying Orders--2
The cost of taking the radar station had been high. Medic Wade had been killed.
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

14. Disobeying Orders--3 When do you fire on your own fellow soldier?
Helicopter pilot at Mi Lai.
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

15. The Wise Rifleman Aristotle:
The clever man knows the best means to any end;
The wise man knows what ends are worth striving for.
“Very self-reliant, a lot of self-confidence, but easygoing. A lot of common sense, too.”
Cpt. Steve Kruger, quoted in Making the Corp, p. 271
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

16. Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla
The Wise Rifleman, 2
General Krulak:
“How do you impart to a 19 year old the intelligence, the tactical skills, the decision making ability--both tactical and moral--to know when to fire and when to protect? When to employ supporting arms in an urban slum and when not to?”
Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla
...in each hand a weapon in each home a terrorist in each barrio revolutionary cells only in this way can we do it! Carlos Marighella
First published in Portugese as a mimeograph in São Paulo, Brazil, in June 1969, Minimanual del guerrillo urbano, by Carlos Marighella, quickly took its place as a classic of revolutionary warfare alongside the works of Che Guevara (Guerrilla Warfare), Mao Zedong (On Guerrilla Warfare and On Protracted War), and General Vo Nguyen Giap (Guerrilla Warfare). While Guevara and Mao remain in print, and Giap to the best of my knowledge unavailable, Marighella's work is difficult to find in it's entirety. Thus, I have transcribed it here. The text is taken from the following edition:
Marighella, Carlos. The Terrorist Classic: Manual of the Urban Guerilla. Trans. Gene Hanrahan. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Documentary Publications, 1985.
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

17. The Sniper
Early scene: Sniper kissing his crucifix, invoking God to be at his side
He is indeed “playing God”
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

18. The Sniper-2 The sniper’s bullet usually arrives unannounced.
Are there any moral issues associated with being a sniper as opposed to being a regular combat soldier?
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

19. Types of Moral Reasoning
Consequentialist:
Group egoism
Deontological:
Duty
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

20. Consequentalist Calculations
Many of the decisions made in combat are made on the basis of consequences, weighing the costs and benefits of various alternatives.
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

21. Consequentalist Calculations--2
Play: 0:43:00
“Explain the math of this to me—risking the eight of us for one life”
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(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

22. Consequentalist Calculations--3
1:16:00 “…22 guys dead protecting life of one general because of metal plates on plane.”
1:38:50 “…little Jimmy’s life is more important than two of our guys.”
1:05:00 Ranger says, “I sure can understand what you’re doing. I’ve got a couple of brothers myself.”
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

23. Consequentalist Calculations--4
Play 1:05:45
Church scene. Recalling crazy guys like Vecchio. “When one of your men is killed, you tell yourself it happened to save the life of 3, 19, maybe a hundred others….We’ve lost 94 men,,,I’ve saved the lives of maybe 10 times that. That’s how simple it is…. Sometimes the mission is the man…. This Ryan better be worth it—he better go home and cure some disease or invent
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

24. Consequentalist Calculations—5
Play 1:05:45
Church scene. Recalling crazy guys like Vecchio. “When one of your men is killed, you tell yourself it happened to save the life of 3, 19, maybe a hundred others….We’ve lost 94 men,,,I’ve saved the lives of maybe 10 times that. That’s how simple it is…. Sometimes the mission is the man…. This Ryan better be worth it—he better go home and cure some disease or invent a longer-lasting light bulb or something.”
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

25. Basic Insights of Utilitarianism
Morality is about producing good consequences, not having good intentions
We should do whatever will bring the most benefit (i.e., intrinsic value) to all of humanity.
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

26. Jeremy Bentham
Bentham believed that we should try to increase the overall amount of pleasure in the world.
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(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

27. Pleasure
Definition: The enjoyable feeling we experience when a state of deprivation is replaced by fulfillment.
Advantages
Easy to quantify
Short duration
Bodily
Criticisms
Came to be known as “the pig’s philosophy”
Ignores higher values
Could justify living on a pleasure machine
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(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

28. John Stuart Mill 1806-1873 Bentham’s godson
Believed that happiness, not pleasure, should be the standard of utility.
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(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

29. Happiness Advantages Disadvantages
A higher standard, more specific to humans
About realization of goals
Disadvantages
More difficult to measure
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

30. Ideal Values
G. E. Moore suggested that we should strive to maximize ideal values such as freedom, knowledge, justice, and beauty.
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

31. The Utilitarian Calculus
Math and ethics finally merge: all consequences must be weighed.
Units of measurement:
Hedons: pleasure
Dolors: pain
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

32. Consequentalist Calculations--6
The underlying pattern of moral reasoning here seems to be group egoism.
Not utilitarianism, which would be for the good of everyone, including the enemy
Not individual egoism, which would be each soldier for himself
The group in group egoism varies
Sometimes the squad
Sometimes American soldiers in general
Which group is one of the issues in deciding whether to attack the radar station.
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

33. Consequentialist Calculations--7
When do considerations of honor override calculations of consequences?
PLAY 34:00
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(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

34. We’d do the same
Play: 48:35. Dialogue: Why do they keep shooting him? Reply: We’d do the same.
Taking beach bunker: Both sides kill—the Germans are not depicted as doing anything that American soldiers would not do. The key moral question is the situation. How ought one to behave in a situation of such brutality? Killing those who surrender? Flame throwers. Shooting soldiers in trenches—killing field.
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

35. Virtue Courage Compassion Duty Obedience Devotion--Sarge 1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

36. Jeremy Davies as Corporal Upham
True Courage
Courage is the ability to persevere in the face of your fears. It has several components:
Strength of will--guts
Knowing what is worth taking risks for
Knowing how great the risks really are
Knowing how great your abilities really are.
Jeremy Davies as Corporal Upham
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

37. Cowardice The cowardly person:
May not know what is worth taking risks for;
May over-estimate how dangerous a situation is;
May underestimate his own abilities; or, finally,
May just lack strength of will, guts.
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

38. Courage and Self-Sacrifice
Aristotle
…the virtuous person labors for his friends and his native country, and will die for them if he must…he will choose a single fine and great action over many small actions…the one who dies for others chooses something great and fine for himself. (1169a)
The Marines
"There is yet another element…that defines Marines, and that is selflessness: a spirit that places the self-interest of the individual second to that of the institution. That selflessness is stronger nowhere in American society than among Marines." FMFM 1-0.
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

39. Courage: Overview
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(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

40. Compassion
What place, if any, does compassion have on the battlefield?
Toward non-combatants?
Trapped French family
Toward fellow soldiers?
Carpezo pinned down by sniper
Toward the enemy?
Captured soldier
Toward the families of soldiers?
Mrs. Ryan’s grief
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(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

41. Compassion--2
How should soldiers respond to the suffering of non-combatants? On what basis should this decision be made?
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(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

42. Compassion--3 The price of Caparzo’s compassion 1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

43. Compassion--4
What do you risk when a soldier is dying under fire? Wade struggles to reach Carpazo.
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

44. Compassion--5
What is the proper way of showing compassion for the grief of a mother who has lost three sons?
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(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

45. Compassion Etymology: to feel or suffer with…
Elements: cognitive, emotional, and action.
Leads to action.
Excess: the “bleeding heart.”
Deficiency: moral callousness.
The foundation of a moral awareness. Without compassion, we have no emotional connectedness with the suffering of others and thus no foundation for a common moral life.
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

46. Compassion and Pity Pity looks down on the other.
Consequently, no one wants to be the object of pity.
Compassion sees the suffering of the other we something that could have happened to us.
Consequently, we welcome the compassion of others when we are suffering.
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

47. Compassion As an Emotion
Emotion is often necessary:
To recognize the suffering of others
Emotional attunement
Part of the response to that suffering
Others often need to feel that you care
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

48. Compassion: Overview Deficiency Mean Excess Cognition Insensitive
Feeling/ Valuing
Cold-hearted Pity
Compas-sion
Bleeding heart
Action
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

49. Compassion and War Captain Miller
“That’s why we can’t take children” 56:45
“Every man I kill, the farther away from home I feel.” 1:30:10
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

50. Duty
Capt. Miller: “…our duty as solders—even if the mission is FUBAR, especially if it is FUBAR.”
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

51. Kant: The Ethics of Duty
More than any other philosopher, Kant emphasized the way in which the moral life was centered on duty.
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

52. Two Conceptions of Duty
Duty as following orders
The Adolph Eichmann model
Duty is external
Duty is imposed by others
Duty as freely imposing obligation on one’s own self
The Kantian model
Duty is internal
We impose duty on ourselves
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

53. Duty and Following Orders
“I had known the Categorical Imperative, but it was in a nutshell, in a summarized form. I suppose it could be summarized as, ‘Be loyal to the laws, be a disciplined person, live an orderly life, do not come into conflict with laws’—that more or less was the whole essence of that law for the use of the little man.”
Adolph Eichmann
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

54. The Man of Duty --Groundwork of a Metaphysics of Morals
“Suppose then that the mind of this friend of man were overclouded by sorrows of his own which extinguished all sympathy with the fate of others, but that he still had power to help those in distress, though no longer stirred by the need of others because sufficiently occupied with his own; and suppose that, when no longer moved by any inclination, he tears himself out of this deadly insensibility and does the action without any inclination for the sake of duty alone; then for the first time his action has its genuine moral worth. Still further: if nature had implanted little sympathy in this or that man’s heart; if (being in other respects an honest fellow) he were cold in temperament and indifferent to the sufferings of others—perhaps because, being endowed with the special gift of patience and robust endurance in his own sufferings, he assumed the like in others or even demanded it; if such a man (who would in truth not be the worst product of nature) were not exactly fashioned by her to be a philanthropist, would he not still find in himself a source from which he might draw a worth far higher than any that a good-natured temperament can have? Assuredly he would. It is precisely in this that the worth of character begins to show—a moral worth and beyond all comparison the highest— namely, that he does good, not from inclination, but from duty.”
--Groundwork of a Metaphysics of Morals
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

55. Redemption
Play 1:05:45
Church scene. Recalling crazy guys like Vecchio. “When one of your men is killed, you tell yourself it happened to save the life of 3, 19, maybe a hundred others….We’ve lost 94 men,,,I’ve saved the lives of maybe 10 times that. That’s how simple it is…. Sometimes the mission is the man…. This Ryan better be worth it—he better go home and cure some disease or invent a longer-lasting light bulb or something.”
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

56. Redemption--2 Play: redemption. 1:52:50, Chapter 14. Play: 2:36:13
“Perhaps, if we do this, we all earn the right to go home.”
Play: 2:36:13
“Angels on our shoulders.” “James, earn this. Earn it.”
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

57. Redemption--3
Play 2:40:35
Ryan: “Tell me I’ve led a good life…Tell me I’m a good man.” Wife: you are.
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(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

58. Redemption--4
"How do you find decency in the hell of warfare? That was the paradox that first attracted me to the project."--Spielberg
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

59. Appendix: The Characters
Captain Miller
Private Ryan
Sergeant Horvath
Private Reiben
Private Jackson
Medic Wade
Corporal Upham
Private Melish
Private Caparzo
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(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

60. Captain John Miller
Actor: Tom Hanks
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(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

61. Private Ryan Private James Francis Ryan Actor: Matt Damon 1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

62. Private Reiben Actor: Ed Burns
A rebel, threatens to walk out on the mission after the attack on the radar station.
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

63. T/4 Medic Wade Actor: Giovanni Ribisi
Killed in attack on radar station
                
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(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

64. Sergeant First Class Horvath
Actor: Tom Sizemore
The omnicompetent sergeant
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

65. Corporal Upham Actor: Jeremy Davies The coward 1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

66. Private Jackson Private Jackson, Sniper Actor: Barry Pepper 1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

67. Private Melish Actor: Adam Goldberg
The only Jewish member of the company
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(c)Lawrence M. Hinman

68. Private Caparzo Actor: Vin Diesel
Killed by sniper in village when trying to save girl in French family
1/2/2019
(c)Lawrence M. Hinman