This article reviews an investigation into the case of Stanley Girch (aka Girėnas) and Stephen William Darius as (multi)transfigured and transforming heroes and seeks to examine a twofold assumption that has emerged in heroism science, namely that people create heroes mostly for the better and that learning from the past can help assess which heroes are needed. We argue that it may be beneficial to shift the focus of the analysis and follow the reverse course of a hero’s journey, tracing the impact, evolution and origin of the heroic status ascribed to the historical figures, whether individual or collective. Presuming that heroic status follows contextualization of actions, the developmental phases, techniques, and authorship of hero-making can be revealed through a reverse analysis of multi-layered contexts. The findings have led to the unsettling conclusion that the making of historical heroes hardly served the greater good and was quite removed from what was thought necessary. The same contradiction, however, may give an impulse for further development of heroism science as it prompts a broad-based, interdisciplinary assessment of the effectiveness of hero-making in the past, its present influence and projections for the future.
本文回顾了对Stanley Girch(又名Girėnas)和Stephen William Darius作为(多重)变形和转化英雄的案例的调查,并试图检验英雄主义科学中出现的双重假设,即人们创造英雄大多是为了更好,从过去的学习可以帮助评估哪些英雄是需要的。我们认为,将分析的焦点转移,沿着英雄旅程的反向路径,追溯历史人物(无论是个人还是集体)英雄地位的影响、演变和起源,可能是有益的。假设英雄地位遵循行动的情境化,那么英雄塑造的发展阶段、技巧和作者身份可以通过多层情境的反向分析来揭示。这些发现导致了一个令人不安的结论,即塑造历史英雄几乎没有为更大的利益服务,而且与人们认为必要的东西相去甚远。然而,同样的矛盾可能会推动英雄主义科学的进一步发展,因为它促使人们对过去英雄塑造的有效性、现在的影响和对未来的预测进行广泛的、跨学科的评估。
{"title":"For Whose Greater Good? The Case of Hero-Making: Girch and Darius","authors":"G. Sviderskytė","doi":"10.26736/hs.2019.01.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26736/hs.2019.01.05","url":null,"abstract":"This article reviews an investigation into the case of Stanley Girch (aka Girėnas) and Stephen William Darius as (multi)transfigured and transforming heroes and seeks to examine a twofold assumption that has emerged in heroism science, namely that people create heroes mostly for the better and that learning from the past can help assess which heroes are needed. We argue that it may be beneficial to shift the focus of the analysis and follow the reverse course of a hero’s journey, tracing the impact, evolution and origin of the heroic status ascribed to the historical figures, whether individual or collective. Presuming that heroic status follows contextualization of actions, the developmental phases, techniques, and authorship of hero-making can be revealed through a reverse analysis of multi-layered contexts. The findings have led to the unsettling conclusion that the making of historical heroes hardly served the greater good and was quite removed from what was thought necessary. The same contradiction, however, may give an impulse for further development of heroism science as it prompts a broad-based, interdisciplinary assessment of the effectiveness of hero-making in the past, its present influence and projections for the future.","PeriodicalId":446177,"journal":{"name":"Heroism Science: An Interdisciplinary Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130089041","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: No Greater Love: How My Family Survived the Genocide in Rwanda","authors":"Rhoda E. Howard-hassmann","doi":"10.26736/HS.2019.01.07","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26736/HS.2019.01.07","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":446177,"journal":{"name":"Heroism Science: An Interdisciplinary Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130094043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article provides a brief outline of an approach to understanding proactive (or social) heroism in embodied terms, taking this as essential to supporting the idea of ‘the banality of heroism’. I first present an analysis of heroic action in general that shows it as involving self-realization through nonselfsacrificial existential necessity, and then show how in cases of reactive heroic action this necessity is best understood in predispositional embodied terms, such that the agent may be said to quite literally incarnate certain generally accepted norms of the intersubjective ethical context. I then briefly sketch out how this same kind of embodied necessity can be seen in proactive cases, albeit with the difference that here it has to do with realizing the ‘validity surplus’ of that ethical context, that is, with the expansion of the scope of application of its norms. Unlike the norms enacted in reactive cases, this expansion is initially not generally accepted, and in this way proactive heroism is conceptually tied to the idea of immanent social progress. By way of conclusion, I comment very briefly on how this relates to questions concerning the wider cultivation of heroism.
{"title":"Self-Realization and Validity Surplus in Proactive Heroism","authors":"Bryan Smyth","doi":"10.26736/HS.2019.02.03","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26736/HS.2019.02.03","url":null,"abstract":"This article provides a brief outline of an approach to understanding proactive (or social) heroism in embodied terms, taking this as essential to supporting the idea of ‘the banality of heroism’. I first present an analysis of heroic action in general that shows it as involving self-realization through nonselfsacrificial existential necessity, and then show how in cases of reactive heroic action this necessity is best understood in predispositional embodied terms, such that the agent may be said to quite literally incarnate certain generally accepted norms of the intersubjective ethical context. I then briefly sketch out how this same kind of embodied necessity can be seen in proactive cases, albeit with the difference that here it has to do with realizing the ‘validity surplus’ of that ethical context, that is, with the expansion of the scope of application of its norms. Unlike the norms enacted in reactive cases, this expansion is initially not generally accepted, and in this way proactive heroism is conceptually tied to the idea of immanent social progress. By way of conclusion, I comment very briefly on how this relates to questions concerning the wider cultivation of heroism.","PeriodicalId":446177,"journal":{"name":"Heroism Science: An Interdisciplinary Journal","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131256939","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Three films create the John Wick universe and franchise: John Wick (2014), John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), and John Wick: Chapter 3, Parabellum (2019). A fourth film is scheduled to be released in March 2023. All are wildly popular, and all are criticized for violence, particularly gun violence. I argue, however, that by examining the visual references that appear in all the films, it becomes clear that the films are defending themselves from such attacks through their allusions to ancient and classical epics from around the world. As Wick battles his way through museums and beautiful cities, the film reminds us that art, all art—fine and popular--relies on violence. Wick follows many of the traditions of the epic hero, and in the end, thanks to the visual cues in the films, he is no different than Achilles or Hector or even High Noon’s Will Kane. And if there is a hero, and if there is art, there will be blood.
{"title":"John Wick: Keanu Reeves’s Epic Adventure","authors":"A. Hall","doi":"10.26736/hs.2022.01.08","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26736/hs.2022.01.08","url":null,"abstract":"Three films create the John Wick universe and franchise: John Wick (2014), John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), and John Wick: Chapter 3, Parabellum (2019). A fourth film is scheduled to be released in March 2023. All are wildly popular, and all are criticized for violence, particularly gun violence. I argue, however, that by examining the visual references that appear in all the films, it becomes clear that the films are defending themselves from such attacks through their allusions to ancient and classical epics from around the world. As Wick battles his way through museums and beautiful cities, the film reminds us that art, all art—fine and popular--relies on violence. Wick follows many of the traditions of the epic hero, and in the end, thanks to the visual cues in the films, he is no different than Achilles or Hector or even High Noon’s Will Kane. And if there is a hero, and if there is art, there will be blood.","PeriodicalId":446177,"journal":{"name":"Heroism Science: An Interdisciplinary Journal","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126067153","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study investigates the role of values in the actions of social heroes, which previous research has suggested may play a role in motivating principled challenges to authority. Kelman and Hamilton’s (1989) orientation to authority framework was used to identify when valueoriented challenges to authority – suggestive of later social heroism – first emerged in their lives, and the values associated with those behaviors. Analyses of archival interviews with 15 leaders of a social activist group found that all participants acted on a value orientation to authority, and they considered these actions to be important experiences in their development as social heroes. The values most associated with these actions were self-direction, universalism, power and achievement. Four participants made value-oriented challenges to authority in childhood; 14 by late adolescence; and all by young adulthood. The early emergence of this behavior suggests that a value orientation to authority is a core element of their identity, and value-oriented challenges to authority were critical experiences in their developmental trajectories as social heroes.
{"title":"Self-Directed Universalists: Social Heroes and Value-Oriented Challenges to Authority","authors":"M. Condren","doi":"10.26736/hs.2019.02.08","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26736/hs.2019.02.08","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates the role of values in the actions of social heroes, which previous research has suggested may play a role in motivating principled challenges to authority. Kelman and Hamilton’s (1989) orientation to authority framework was used to identify when valueoriented challenges to authority – suggestive of later social heroism – first emerged in their lives, and the values associated with those behaviors. Analyses of archival interviews with 15 leaders of a social activist group found that all participants acted on a value orientation to authority, and they considered these actions to be important experiences in their development as social heroes. The values most associated with these actions were self-direction, universalism, power and achievement. Four participants made value-oriented challenges to authority in childhood; 14 by late adolescence; and all by young adulthood. The early emergence of this behavior suggests that a value orientation to authority is a core element of their identity, and value-oriented challenges to authority were critical experiences in their developmental trajectories as social heroes.","PeriodicalId":446177,"journal":{"name":"Heroism Science: An Interdisciplinary Journal","volume":"340 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115886519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Although less than a decade old, the nascent field of heroism science has enjoyed considerable growth in the form of publication output, a regular conference series, and a flagship journal. We briefly discuss the tradeoffs of heroism science’s paradigmatic multiplicity. Moreover, we offer several observations about the future direction of heroism science, with emphasis on bridging gaps with allied field, embracing cultural diversity, taking a more critical stance, building academic rigor, and developing better measures of heroism. We conclude with a call for the formation of an international professional organization and for the stronger academic legitimation of heroism science.
{"title":"The State of the Art (and Science) of Heroism: Growth, Paradigms, and Future\u0000 Directions in an Emerging Field","authors":"Scott T. Allison, E. Kinsella","doi":"10.26736/hs.2019.01.04","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26736/hs.2019.01.04","url":null,"abstract":"Although less than a decade old, the nascent field of heroism science has enjoyed considerable growth in the form of publication output, a regular conference series, and a flagship journal. We briefly discuss the tradeoffs of heroism science’s paradigmatic multiplicity. Moreover, we offer several observations about the future direction of heroism science, with emphasis on bridging gaps with allied field, embracing cultural diversity, taking a more critical stance, building academic rigor, and developing better measures of heroism. We conclude with a call for the formation of an international professional organization and for the stronger academic legitimation of heroism science.","PeriodicalId":446177,"journal":{"name":"Heroism Science: An Interdisciplinary Journal","volume":"65 Supplementum 2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130312251","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}