The Looking Glass War, written by John Le Carré, is a spy fiction novel that takes place in the early 1960s. An obsolete British military intelligence organization, known as “The Department,” comes across information that assumes the Russians have placed missiles along the West Germany border, and this is seen as a direct threat to Great Britain. The Department, without sufficient resources and staffed by former military intelligence officers left over from World War II, pays a civilian airline pilot to try and collect photographs of the area by veering off course. The Department’s agent is killed after he collects the film, so another agent is sent in to recover the film but it cannot be found. As a last resort, and in an effort to become
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Lansen’s first display of courage was to accept the mission from the London based intelligence organization. Next, and perhaps the most important display of courage, occurred after the flight was completed. Lansen entered the bar in the airport upon completion of the flight and located the intelligence agent. He explained to the agent that there were 25 kids on the flight and since he was intercepted by the fighter jets and it was too dangerous for the kids. Therefore, he would no longer complete any missions for the intelligence …show more content…
One can easily determine that The Department did not make just decisions in regards to taking on this case, since they did not have the proper training, agents, or equipment. Therefore, The Department should have made the just decision free from biases and turned the case over to their rival agency, The Circus, as Avery suggested because they were more capable of handling the case.
Many ethical dilemmas present themselves in the spy fiction novel The Looking Glass War. The first ethical principle discussed was Captain Lansen’s display of courage, and how his actions fit Aristotle virtue of courage perfectly. The virtue of courage was followed by an examination of the Kantian ethics view of lying compared against how the spies in the book conducted themselves. Lastly, The Department’s decision to take on the case was analyzed through the lens of one of Aristotle’s greatest virtues,
Lansen’s first display of courage was to accept the mission from the London based intelligence organization. Next, and perhaps the most important display of courage, occurred after the flight was completed. Lansen entered the bar in the airport upon completion of the flight and located the intelligence agent. He explained to the agent that there were 25 kids on the flight and since he was intercepted by the fighter jets and it was too dangerous for the kids. Therefore, he would no longer complete any missions for the intelligence …show more content…
One can easily determine that The Department did not make just decisions in regards to taking on this case, since they did not have the proper training, agents, or equipment. Therefore, The Department should have made the just decision free from biases and turned the case over to their rival agency, The Circus, as Avery suggested because they were more capable of handling the case.
Many ethical dilemmas present themselves in the spy fiction novel The Looking Glass War. The first ethical principle discussed was Captain Lansen’s display of courage, and how his actions fit Aristotle virtue of courage perfectly. The virtue of courage was followed by an examination of the Kantian ethics view of lying compared against how the spies in the book conducted themselves. Lastly, The Department’s decision to take on the case was analyzed through the lens of one of Aristotle’s greatest virtues,