Should Humanitarians be Heroes?

International Journal of Applied Philosophy 34 (2):255-270 (2020)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Humanitarian aid workers typically reject the accolade of hero as both untrue and undesirable. Untrue when they claim not to be acting beyond the call of duty, and undesirable so far as celebrating heroism risks elevating “heroic” choices over safer, and perhaps wiser ones. However, this leaves unresolved a tension between the denial of heroism and a sense in which certain humanitarian acts really appear heroic. And, the concern that in rejecting the aspiration to heroism an opportunity is lost to inspire more and better humanitarian action. Having set out this problem in more detail in Part I, the argument in Part II will suggest that a virtue ethics approach to humanitarian moral obligations can make good sense of our intuitions concerning the role of heroism in humanitarian action. In Part III I will argue that at least “professional” humanitarians, instead of rejecting heroism, should aim to be heroes, in the sense of displaying a virtue of humanity in high-stakes contexts, because this is consistent with the aim of humanitarian action. Finally, some lingering problems of demandingness and motivation are considered.

Similar books and articles

The impertinent self: a heroic history of modernity.Josef Früchtl - 2009 - Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
Time and the Heroes.Edward P. Butler - 2014 - Walking the Worlds: A Biannual Journal of Polytheism and Spiritwork 1 (1):23-44.
The impertinent self: a heroic history of modernity.Josef Früchtl - 2009 - Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
Heroes in Germany ancient and modern.Ronald G. Finch - 1972 - Belfast,: Queen's University.
Nihilism Reconstruction and the Hero's Journey.Raymond Aaron Younis - 2007 - In Angela Ndalianis Wendy Haslem & Chris Mackie (eds.), Super/Heroes. New Academia. pp. 97-111.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-04-14

Downloads
221 (#83,596)

6 months
115 (#27,783)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Jonathan Edwards
University of Queensland

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references