Title

Philosophers of War: The Evolution of History's Greatest Military Thinkers

Authors

Daniel Coetzee
Lee Eysturlid, Illinois Mathematics and Science AcademyFollow

Document Type

Book

Publication Date

2013

Disciplines

History | Military History

Abstract

The philosophy of war is usually treated in the context of philosophy as a discipline in the same way military justice is compared to justice, and military music to music. That is to say, it is presented as a red-headed stepchild at best or, more likely, as an illegitimate offspring, Carl von Clausewitz, the West's defining military philosopher and its most familiar figure, barely rates a footnote and an index entry in general histories of philosophy—even those with a German emphasis.

The same point can be made about military thought. Theoretical analysis of war is commonly understood in practical contexts: as a reaction to an a product of, experience. It is correspondingly presented in operational and institutional contexts: its templates are armed forces, states, and societies.

Comments

Philosophers of War: The Evolution of History's Greatest Military Thinkers: Chapter 1

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Recommended Citation

"General Theory." In Vol. 1, Philosophers of War: The Evolution of History's Greatest Military Thinkers, edited by Daniel Coetzee and Lee W. Eysturlid, 1-191. Santa Barabara: Praeger, 2013. http://digitalcommons.imsa.edu/hss_pr/8/.