ABSTRACT
In Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility, she makes use of a distinction between sense and sensibility which had been available to the English language for nearly one hundred years: the latter half of the eighteenth century was known as the ‘Age of Sensibility’. The juxtaposition of the two terms was intended to convey a distinction between the objective knowledge of an event or fact: the sense; sensibility referred to a more subjective interpretation of knowledge which we might today call empathy. As Austen makes clear, the sense of Elinor and the sensibility of Marianne are not necessarily in conflict, but might be – ought to be – complimentary. It might even be said that Elinor knew; Marianne understood. This in fact is just what we are seeking: not simply to know more, but to understand better. And so it is now time to turn to a more principled description of the military, and their relationships with ‘the humans’.
