History and Elements of Vocation/Profession and Military Profession

Abstract

The increasing number of contractual soldiers applied by the state or a private company, and establishing territorial military units led by volunteer-reservist officers raise important etical and moral questions. One part of the questions proposes the special personal traits and moral duties of contractual soldiers and reservists. Another part of the questions connects with this later problem, and it sounds as „How can we discriminate, on etical and moral level, between contractual soldiers and reservists on the one hand, and professional soldiers on the other?”. To answer this question we have first to ethically and morally define military profession in general. This paper proposes this problem, beginning with overviewing the history and elements of vocation and profession in general, and then describing military profession, with particular emphasis on the ethical and moral elements of it.