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It is through superhero costumes that heroic identity is established. Superhero clothing, such as masks, capes and bright colours, not only establishes the superhero narrative but also plays a vital role in the superhero's identity as distinct from other superheroes, but also from the general public. It is through costume that superheroes are distinguished with many immediately recognized across and on multi-platforms. However, in recent years, western societies have been described as transitioning into a post-heroic era. This article will analyse how superhero costumes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) have adapted and mutated in recent years to discuss our changing understanding of heroism. This article will explore how the shift from 'costume' to 'uniform' reflects superheroes becoming part of a formalized and organized governmental unit, considering the role of heroic agency and the superhero's moral responsibility for their actions. By focusing on costumes and uniforms, this article will discuss how heroic identity is becoming more fluid, and good and evil are no longer presented as binaries or absolutes. The nuanced and flawed superhero characters facilitate to create distinction, and this is reflected in their dress. The article will consider the ways in which such 'human' flaws facilitate an identity through dress that gives the character agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of heroism and heroic virtue belongs among the most discussed topics in history. It emerges as a recurring theme, mainly in the context of an imminent military danger provoking horror and fear which an individual must resist. This is precisely why heroism was a subject of Nazi propaganda in the past, when it was associated with an irrational willingness to sacrifice one's own life for any value. In the context of the current war turmoil and tenebrous scenarios regarding the future of the humanity, this article poses the following question: what exactly is heroic virtue? In particular, it focuses on the image of heroism presented by Josef Pieper, who followed the line of thinking of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. He wanted to demonstrate how the courage to face injustice, in spite of imminent danger, develops into heroism when the power of hope is mobilised within individuals. This refers not only to the natural hope associated with our common expectations, but also a mystical hope that helps a hero maintain justice even when face-to-face with the predominance of evil until the end. The article concludes by proposing several motives that might be considered in the process of education to heroic virtue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several recent studies devote themselves to Mary Astell's feminist theory of virtue—her 'serious proposal to the ladies' to help women obtain wisdom, equality, and happiness, despite the prejudices of seventeenth-century custom. But there has been little scholarship on Astell's conception of heroic virtues , those exceptional character traits that raise their bearers above the ordinary course of nature. Astell's appropriation of heroic virtue poses a number of philosophical difficulties for her feminist ethics—heroic virtues are characteristically masculine, exceptional, and individualistic, ill-suited to a community-oriented feminism aimed at ordinary women. In this paper, we seek to investigate—and then dispel—these key difficulties. Our intention is to generate a new understanding of Astell's theory of virtue as a unique and sophisticated theory that equalizes and naturalizes heroic virtue for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The young Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) had perused many of the Epicurean writings of the French Enlightenment. According to Carlyle, such ‘Epicureanism’ consisted primarily in an emphasis upon pleasure and pain as the springs of human action, and a positing of self-interest as the foundation of sociability. However, Carlyle soon came to reject such notions, seeking salvation in the writings of Kant and Schiller, who stressed the possibility of disinterested virtue, and the importance of free, moral activity. Indeed, the Epicureanism debate continued to resonate in Carlyle's subsequent political writings, and particularly his notorious polemics against laissez-faire and ‘public opinion’. Finally, in Carlyle's last major work, Frederick the Great , he found himself faced with the unenviable task of painting an Epicurean into a patina of heroic virtue. Despite his best efforts, however, Carlyle's biography remained haunted by the spectre of Epicureanism. Nonetheless, as Carlyle's contemporaries recognized, his writings had done much not only to discredit the Epicureanism of the French eighteenth century, but also to shape the moral and political ideals of the British nineteenth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A people's cultural and historical past, represented as community's destiny, is memorized and sent down, from one generation to the next, through the many channels of popular orality: legends, ballads, popular poetry and also through those chanels more specific to modern times, such as patriotic songs, cultivated poetry, fiction (especially historical novels), history, histories, films, etc. Through their educational purpose, but also through their emotional/affective packaging, all these do manage the collective past and determine the manner in which the historical time is perceived in a patromonial and affective fashion, as national past. The present study wishes to analyze the manner in which Romanian radio stations covered the events organized on the Heroes' Day in 2014, to identify the themes of the radio coverage and to assess whether the current radio shows are able to ensure a memory link or connection between generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role and characteristics of the heroic protagonist in the social entrepreneurship literature. It mentions that the social entrepreneurship network building organisations used profiles of entrepreneurs to help define the field and qualify the direction and impact of their own work. It notes that the emergence of anti-heroes or unsung heroes has added further complexity reflecting the self-reflexive preoccupations of late modernity.

This essay explores the question of how to be good. My starting point is a thesis about moral worth that I've defended in the past: roughly, that an action is morally worthy if and only it is performed for the reasons why it is right. While I think that account gets at one important sense of moral goodness, I argue here that it fails to capture several ways of being worthy of admiration on moral grounds. Moral goodness is more multi-faceted. My title is intended to capture that multi-facetedness: the essay examines saintliness, heroism, and sagacity. The variety of our common-sense moral ideals underscores the inadequacy of any one account of moral admirableness, and I hope to illuminate the distinct roles these ideals play in our everyday understanding of goodness. Along the way, I give an account of what makes actions heroic, of whether such actions are supererogatory, and of what, if anything, is wrong with moral deference. At the close of the essay, I begin to explore the flipside of these ideals: villainy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with charges of impiety and corruption of the youth, Socrates attempts a defence designed to vindicate the philosophic way of life. In this he seems to be successful, as Socrates is today highly regarded for his description of the good life and for his unwillingness to live any other sort of life, a position that is most obviously exemplified by his defence in the Apology. After his sentencing, Socrates' arguments and actions — in the Crito and the Phaedo — also lend considerable support to the idea that the philosopher is committed to living a particularly good sort of life. While the sequence of dialogues that culminates in Socrates' execution might seem to be the most obviously critical of the life of the philosopher, these dialogues actually serve to enshrine the character of Socrates as the quintessential moral hero. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Victory, Joseph Conrad (1915/1924) revises his earlier treatment of trauma as a singular cataclysmic event in the life of a potentially heroic adult, usually male (as depicted in Heart of Darkness [1898], Lord Jim [1900], and Under Western Eyes [1911]), to a conception of trauma as the corrosive effect of a child's repeated exposures to emotionally invalidating caregivers. Abandoning a view of trauma that would accord with Freud's account of a single shocking incident, in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Conrad adopts instead a view that parallels Philip Bromberg's account of trauma as a series of toxic childhood occurrences. Thus Conrad's novel Victory presciently anticipates the corrective vision of contemporary relational psychoanalytic theory, which has largely supplanted Freud's more dramatic narratives with a subtle and nuanced understanding of trauma as a long-term lack of validation in childhood that forecloses adult possibilities. In Victory's portraits of two characters whose lives are constricted by pathological dissociation, Conrad presents literary examples that confirm and illumine Bromberg's clinical and theoretical explications of this pervasive psychological phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dieter Schlesak's novel VLAD. Die Dracula-Korrektur tries to deconstruct in an original manner the myth of Dracula by proposing a new approach of the subject: instead of the homonymous literary motif, the author deals with the literary figure Vlad Tepes. The originality of this approach lies in the fact that Schlesak does not present the reader with a classical heroic figure, instead he deliberately prefers fiction to the attributes of the classic historic novel. Thus he operates not only with a polyphonic text, but also with intertextualism, creating a novel of impressing complexity. This way of dealing with the subject is sustained by the main character, conceived as a decadent Renaissance prince and a prisoner between two antagonic universes, as well as by the whole constellation of real and fictional characters that define his contradictory personality. Dieter Schlesak has accepted the risk of being criticised by his countrymen as well as by historians, deliberately trying to change the Western readers' perception of this legendary Romanian figure. By creating a literary character that rejects the Western stereotypes and the Romanian prejudices, he manages to prove the potential of the literary figure of Dracula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American imagination has always been captivated by the drama of the frontier, where a civilization is eked out among the brutal forces of nature by a few heroic individuals' force of strength and resolute courage. It seems mysterious why we, accustomed to the comforts of civil life and no longer precariously dependent on a few heroic souls, spend so much time employing the benefits of modern civilization, such as art and technology, in an effort to reconstruct the moments when civilization seemed so fragile. The success of the frontier in the American imagination may point to a partial failure in our own founding. Although we celebrate our triumph over the rude forces of nature by our common contribution to the social compact, our preoccupation with the frontier in literature and film suggests that we may doubt whether those achievements are in fact the products of our own virtue. John Ford's The Searchers offers a probing treatment of the tension between the virtues that are necessary to a successful founding and those that are necessary for the continued success of society. Departing from the standard form of the typical Western, in which the unqualified merits of the all-American hero triumph over the savage forces of nature, Ford chooses for the movie's central figure Ethan Edwards, a man whose heroic qualities are matched by his savagery. Hence, Ford's film not only points to the ambiguous qualities of civilization's heroes but also provides a lesson to those who admire those heroes and qualities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a discussion on the 1898 battle of Omdurman happened in the city of Sudan. It features the campaign that pursues Lord Herbert H. Kitchener to destroy the Khalifa army in the capital city of Omdurman. It explores the heroic action seen during war and how people gave importance to the victims and soldiers who joined the war.

This article discusses the meaning of virtue in 18th-century France. Three academies in the 18th century, including the French Academy, the Academy of Bordeaux and the Academy of Montauban, established annual contests where virtue is rewarded with "prix de vertu," or virtue prize. Author Marisa Linton named the three concepts of virtue as kingly virue, noble virtue and republican virtue, none of which categorizes prix de vertu winners. An analysis of prix de vertu winners revealed that all three virtues are present in them since they are chosen for heroic sacrifice, which is a kingly virtue; benevolent acts toward others, which is a republican virtue; and gentlemanly competitiveness, which is a noble virtue. An account of seventeen-year-old Joseph Chrétien's virtuous act is presented.

Copyright of Teología is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica Argentina and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Understanding what causes terrorists to conduct mass-casualty attacks is essential. In this essay, we argue that religious terrorist groups and terrorist groups embracing an ideological/mythic pattern similar to religion that conduct such attacks are motivated by what we label the symbolic DNA of terrorism. Terrorist groups such as al Qaeda perceive that their identity is threatened, and believe that the only way to remove that threat is by reconnecting with their heroic past. The myth provides a narrative that encourages group members to engage in "God's work" against the oppressor in order to destroy the threat and regain past heroism to achieve a glorious future. In this essay, the symbolic DNA of terrorism is described in detail, with a focus on al Qaeda. We conclude by drawing implications for the Global War on Terror. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aristotle famously held that there is a crucial difference between the person who merely acts rightly and the person who is wholehearted in what she does. He captures this contrast by insisting on a distinction between continence and full virtue. One way of accounting for the important difference here is to suppose that, for the genuinely virtuous person, the requirements of virtue “silence” competing reasons for action. I argue that the silencing interpretation is not compelling. As Aristotle rightly saw, virtue can have a cost, and a mark of the wise person is that she recognizes it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a growing body of detailed studies of key aspects of the Great War, there remains a dominant image of the war as a major tragedy in which the idealism of a generation of young men was exploited by their incompetent and callous elders and out of which there emerged a profound disillusionment and rejection of past values. Such an interpretation rests on the evidence of a small, and untypical, number of ‘soldier-writers’. By exploring the contemporaneous writings of a relatively unknown figure, Patrick MacGill, this article offers an alternative perspective that recognises both the well-known horrors of the Great War but also the persistence of certain ‘heroic’ values that have been misleadingly obscured by the well-known retrospective accounts of the war. Résumé: Malgré de nombreuses études détaillées sur la grande guerre, une image domine qui présente le conflit comme le tombeau des idéalismes et dont ne sortiraient que la désillusion et le rejet des valeurs du passé. Bien des éléments de cette interprétation dépendent des écrits de quelques auteurs atypiques. Une lecture de Patrick MacGill permet de voir en son contexte la persistance des valeurs héroïques de la grande guerre souvent minimisées par la suite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the study of Beethoven's heroic symphonies, his Third Symphony, the Eroica, and "Wellingtons Sieg." It also mentions the Eroicasaal, a small room in Vienna's Lobkowitz palace where he has first performed Eroica. "The Imaginary Museum of Musical works" illustrates the musical architecture metaphor where a place survives with the music. Eroica's comparison to architecture is due to construction problems successfully resolved in music, according to Romain Rolland. Beethoven's friend and pupil, Ferdinand Ries says that "Eroica" is originally entitled "Bonaparte", but Beethoven changes it when he finds out that Bonaparte has declared himself Emperor. Beethoven later produces "Wellingtons Sieg," which critics consider the particularization of Eroica's abstraction.

This paper analyzes the idea of courage in ancient Greek and Jewish thought in order to find a contemporary meaning. Does courage exist, what is its relation to fear, and does a courageous soul struggle for self-mastery or achieve harmony? I examine Plato and Aristotle for Greek thought, the Hebrew Bible and some rabbis for Jewish thought, and Maimonides who combined both traditions. The courage of the citizen and member, of the philosopher and prophet, and public arenas for courage, are compared. The key theme is the question of fear and courage—the role of courage in encountering fear and the role of fear in engendering courage. Whereas Greek thought sought to overcome fear with a higher love, Jewish thought overcame earthly fear with a higher fear. The place of such awe or devotion in modern secular life is explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article relates the sociological concepts of everyday life and heroic life. If everyday life is usually associated with the mundane, taken-for-granted, commonsense routines which sustain and maintain the fabric of people's daily lives, then the heroic life points to the opposite qualities. It indicates extraordinary deeds, virtuosity, courage, endurance and the capacity to attain distinction. If the very taken-for-grantedness of everyday life means the necessity of subjecting one's activities to practical knowledge and routines whose heterogeneity and lack of systemicity is rarely theorized, then the heroic life cuts a swathe through this dense facticity. It points to an ordered life fashioned by fate or will, in which the everyday is viewed as something to be tamed, resisted or denied, something to be subjugated in the pursuit of a higher purpose. More than most sociological concepts everyday life has proved exceedingly difficult to define. This would seem to be the case because everyday life is the life-world which provides the ultimate ground from which spring all conceptualizations, definitions and narratives. The emphasis in the heroic life is on the courage to struggle and achieve extraordinary goals, the quest for virtue, glory and fame, which contrasts with the lesser everyday pursuit of wealth, property and earthly love.

The category of heroic action is important in both everyday life and the wider social context. This article argues that interest in the notion of heroic actions and heroic defeats also brings out an important set of sociological problems, such as disagreements on identity, norms, and rational choice explanations. Illustrations are provided from recent analyses of union militancy in Britain and Italy, and of the student movement in Beijing. Different versions of the critique of rational choice theory often take norm-guided action as a point of departure Another version of this critique is represented by theories of new social movements and identity maintenance. The article suggests that rational choice theory is more useful than some of its opponents would have it; yet the general argument favors a mixed motivation approach. The discussion point out some of the strengths and limitations of different explanatory perspectives, and some of the links between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article relates an incident depicting sense of faithfulness. In September 1777, there happened an abundant flood at Saint Petersburg. And as an empress who was in danger of being reached by the flood asked for a certain soldier's help, the soldier exhibited the highest level of faithfulness to his emperor, refusing to help the empress and obeying his emperor's order for him to stay in the balcony. Amidst the flood and eventually being drowned, the soldier kept his orders and remained faithful to his emperor.