"When to Be a Hero"
Abstract:
A grenade lands near several soldiers. There is very little time. Private Garcia knows that she could sacrifice herself for her fellow soldiers. “I don’t have to do this, but I should,” she thinks, and she is right. She throws her body on top of the grenade.
You hear that your new neighbor is sick with COVID. You’re overwhelmed with a busy job and taking care of your kids, but you know you could reach out and offer some help picking up medicine or groceries. “I don’t have to do it, but I should,” you think and you are right. You offer to help.
These could be true stories. Sometimes, there is something you could do for someone else; you don’t have to do it; but all things considered, you should.
Of course, the opposite also happens. At some moments, there is something wonderful you could do for someone, but you shouldn’t do it; you should go take care of yourself. The question “Is now the time to be a hero?” is an important question with an answer – sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t.
There are things one should do for moral reasons that aren’t morally required, and there are moral mistakes that aren’t morally wrong. Morality speaks to us even within the realm of the morally permissible, when we are choosing among morally permissible options. Recognizing these truths allows us to articulate and consider important new views about the ethics of eating meat, effective altruism, sexual morality, and gamete donation. In these realms, morality may be telling us what to do, even while allowing us to act otherwise.