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Let me give a concrete example I use in my ethics classes.
On Jan 13, 1982 an Air Florida Boeing 727 crashed into the Potomac River in Washington D.C. 73 of the 79 people aboard were killed instantly, leaving 6 survivors in the freezing river.
On Jan 13, 1982 an Air Florida Boeing 727 crashed into the Potomac River in Washington D.C. 73 of the 79 people aboard were killed instantly, leaving 6 survivors in the freezing river.
Because of the extreme cold, witnesses were unable to assist, and rescue teams had trouble getting there. Finally a police helicopter arrived with a rope (not a proper rescue craft, but the only one that could get there).
A Texas schoolteacher name Arland Williams was one of the 6 survivors of the crash. He was the first to reach the rescue line.
He gave it to another survivor.
He gave it to another survivor.
Mr. Williams, when the helicopter returned, was once again the first to reach the rescue rope. Once again, he gave it to another survivor.
He did this FIVE TIMES, reaching the rope that could save him, and giving it to another.
He did this FIVE TIMES, reaching the rope that could save him, and giving it to another.
When the five were safe and the rescue helicopter returned for the last time, Arland Williams was gone. He was the only one of the 6 crash survivors to drown.
Because not once, not twice, but all five times, he gave the rope to another, so they could live.
Because not once, not twice, but all five times, he gave the rope to another, so they could live.
Arland Williams had no strict moral duty to do this. It makes no sense to say each of the 6 survivors had a MORAL DUTY to go last. If so, none could have lived.
What he did was not duty. It was moral HEROISM.
It was action, as we rightly say, above and beyond the call of duty.
What he did was not duty. It was moral HEROISM.
It was action, as we rightly say, above and beyond the call of duty.
Arland Williams is, to my mind, an exemplar of a moral hero. He gave away his chance to live FIVE TIMES, and saved FIVE PEOPLE—at the cost of his life. No one thinks he had a DUTY to do this. No one BLAMES the other five, who lived, for failing in their moral duty.
