Heroes for a Different Reason

Do all heroes act in the interest of other people?

We defined heroism in class as doing an altruistic act at a more elevated or dramatic price than the altruist. Doing something altruistic entails doing something for the purpose of helping people rather than helping oneself.

So what about the heroes that are searching for honor? We consider them to be heroes, but they don't seem to really care about the people they help as much as they care about whether or not their legend will live on. This might not be as common in the present, but it certainly was common in Medieval England, Ancient Greece, Rome, and countries of the like.

Maybe they're worried about honor, or maybe they're worried about duty. Some people do things strictly out of duty to a person or idea that means a lot to them. In "The Pirates of Penzance," Frederic feels a sense of duty to the pirates and thus helps them until his term of duty is fulfilled. If somebody performs an altruistic act out of duty and ends up saving someone's life because of it, they are not acting in the interest of the person's life that they saved, but rather the interest of doing their duty.

A man who dies from pushing a child from in front of an oncoming train is considered a hero, but what was his stimulus for doing that heroic act? Maybe somebody ordered him to do it, or maybe he wanted to be remembered as a hero. It is not certain whether or not he did it in the interest of the child he saved.