Altruism is a form of selfless behavior that benefits others without benefiting the self. Even more extreme than altruism is heroism which is a form of altruism that requires a tremendous amount of sacrifice. In general, heroism (1) involves some type of quest , (2) some form of actual or anticipated sacrifice or risk, (3) can be passive or active, (4) can be one time or recurrent (Franco, 2011).
The current essay analyzes Wesley Autrey 's heroism. The case description section briefly describes the case. The theoretical analysis section summarizes major theories which explain the causes of Autrey 's heroism. In the end, the current essay integrates these theories and provides a coherent analysis of Autrey 's behaviors.
Case Description
Wesley Autrey is an ordinary father who has two daughters and works as a construction worker, but something extraordinary happened on January 2, 2007. When
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When Autrey saw Peter suffering, Autrey also experiences pain. For example, Autrey believes that Peter would lose his limbs or even life if he does not save Peter. Such a depressing and horrifying thoughts and imageries might have led to Autrey 's own pain which subsequently generates helping behavior that relieves the pain. In addition, Autrey’s thought of Peter losing his limbs might simultaneously provoke the experiences of a more selfless concern for the victim. For example, the thought of Peter losing his life might have prompted Autrey to imagine Peter 's disabled life after losing his limbs. As a result, Autrey helped Peter because Autrey does not want Peter to lead a miserable and disabled life. In addition, both personal distress and empathic concern might interact with each other. In other words, personal distress might enhance empathic concern, and vice versa. In short, the interaction between personal distress and emphatic concern together triggers Autrey 's
Who is your hero? Many of us can clearly picture our idea of our personal hero in our head, but is the person you consider to be a hero really a hero by definition? In Heroism: Why Heroes are Important, Scott LaBarge, a Classics and Philosophy Professor at Santa Clara University, awakens your thoughts on the word heroism and how it has changed since its origins in ancient Greece. Throughout his essay, he goes in depth into the term ‘hero’ and compares it to society’s take on heroes today. Although LaBarge uses examples to back up his stance that “Today, it is much harder to detach the concept of heroism from morality (LaBarge. 1),” his essay contains flaws and he contradicts his own words.
Altruism is selfless acts like someone willingly sacrificing their life for their child’s. When people show acts of altruism it is usually because they feel empathy for the person. They have feelings that reflect on how that person is feeling in the situation. We sacrifice ourselves for strangers in need to help reduce our personal distress of seeing them in need. Another reason is experiencing the feelings of the person in need. If a person sees someone having car trouble they will want to help because they remember having car trouble with no one around to help. They are sacrificing their wellbeing by pulling over to help, they could be putting themselves in a bad situation if the person is a criminal.
King Mufasa showed true altruism when he rescued Simba from the stampede. Altruism is an unselfish desire to help someone else without regard to personal welfare or safety. Some psychologists argue that in reality, altruistic acts are in fact motivated by self-interests such as to present one's self as powerful, caring,
Ervin Staub, a holocaust survivor from Hungary and a scholar on altruistic behavior, has written, "Goodness like evil often begins in small steps. Heroes evolve; they aren't born. Very often the rescuers make only a small commitment at the start, to hide someone for a day or two. But once they have taken that step, they begin to see themselves differently, as someone who helps. What starts as mere willingness becomes intense involvement.
Tracy, Stephen V., The story of the Hero. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1990. PA4167 .T7 1990
The idea of self-sacrifice seems relatively common-sense to most of us: we forgo some current potential good in order to maximise either the good of someone we care about, or our own later good. Richard Brandt (1972) includes altruistic desires in his definition of self-interest: "if I really desire the happiness of my daughter, or the discomfiture of my department chairman ... then getting that desire satisfied ... counts as being an enhancement of my utility or welfare ... to an extent corresponding to how strongly I want that outcome." The key point here is that by this definition of self-interest, an altruistic act must have a number of conditions in order to be classed as self-sacrifice. Ove...
A hero, as stated before, selflessly thinks about others’ well beings before his or her own. Bilbo Baggins, the hobbit who was enlisted to help the dwarves retrieve Thorin’s family treasure, does the same thing when he decides to take matters into his own hands, and end the fight between Thorin, the lake men, and the woodelves. Bilbo decides to give the Arkenstone, a p...
Selflessness is thinking of others lives and safety before what is to come upon yourself. It is hard to achieve because it means putting someone 's life on the line for other people 's.There are so many book characters out there, many are selfless in some way. However, a few stand out in the books Code Orange, Uprising and Of Mice and Men. The following characters all share the drive to save other people 's lives. In Code Orange, the character Mitty Blake is willing to kill himself to save his city from smallpox. George Milton in Of Mice and Men shows he is selfless by taking in a mentally ill man who can 't care for himself. George opens his life Lennie knowing it will change his life by not allowing him to achieve his dreams, because he has
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, altruism is defined as an “unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others”. In simpler terms, altruism is unconditional kindness. Altruistic behavior has been a controversial and obscure subject among biologists, including Charles Darwin, who was one of the first to try and explain this phenomenon. “To explain the evolution of altruism, Charles Darwin suggested that natural selection could act on groups as well as individuals--an idea known as group selection”(Schwartz). Group selection, which was based off of Darwin’s theory of natural selection, was the theory that an individual organism would sacrifice itself (seemingly selflessly) for the good of the entire population, hoping that its actions would save the group from annihilation and therefore allow for the continuation of the group’s gene flow into its descendants. Darwin explained that groups with members “ready to give aid to each other and sacrifice themselves for the com...
The behavior of altruism in an individual is when it brings more costs than benefits for the benefit of another individual. Altruism comes from the Latin word "Alter" which means "the others." This translation of alturism describes it relatively well. Another great definition of altruism can be found in a statement of Edward Osborne Wilson, an American biologist. According to Wilson, "Altruism is defined in biology, as in everyday life, as a self-destructive
For someone who believes in psychological egoism, i t is difficult to find an action that would be acknowledged as purely altruistic. In practice, altruism, is the performance of duties to others with no view to any sort of personal...
According to the article, Altruism and helping behavior, it is common for people to help others. Altruism is defined as “the desire to help another person even if it doesn’t benefit the helper” (Altruism and Helping Behavior. Print.). Helping behavior is “any act that is intended to benefit another person”
Norman, Vera. "Four Conceptions of the Heroic." Fellowship of Reason. N.p., 2005. Web. 29 May 2014.
Heros are not selfish they are selfless because to them they should care more about people than they care about themselves. Just like a firefighter, firefighters risk their lives for people that are in burning buildings they also risk their own lives for a very low chance to live. Like on 9/11, the twin towers were going to fall any second and there were still firefighters that went inside of those buildings to save people and winded up dying for the safety of others.The average person wouldn't want to risk their lives for that. Another example would be a soldier in the war, they risk their lives for the sake of our country, they also risk the fact that they could lose a limb or even worse they risk
Heroism has no bias function, but through the situations that hits one, heroism can shine through or conceal itself from the false bearer. Is it the acts of kindness that leak out the functionality of heroism or a fantasy warrior who fights to charm others. Heroism works on many horizons and can be classified in many complex rubrics or classifications, for example, one might say a person who has impacted one person’s life is not a hero, but a person who has aided many is a hero. One example of a hero is in the poem, A Man, in the various examples of how soldier lives his life in handicap, but chooses to make his life as normal as possible and for others by going the extra mile. Another example might be in the movie, Mulan, where a young Chinese girl chooses to fight in her ill-stricken father’s place to restore her family’s honor. In the vast populations eyes, every special person sees a hero in a different way, for some these examples above might not be the type of heroes that a couple of people might not come face to face with or even think of; No one genuinely knows how heroism really functions, for there is 7.6 billion different variations of what heroism is. Heroism in another possible viewpoint could be a powerful force of righteousness in the embodiment of a pure soul and acts of kindness or acts of willing love. Another possible perspective of heroism could be the way how others want to benefit society in majorly positive ways.