Heroism Science: Frameworks for an Emerging Field

Abstract

This article outlines the conceptual framework for a new science focused on heroism, using multiple perspectives to generate a science that is explicitly in service to humanity. The role of heroism as a case study for deviant interdisciplinarity, heroism science as story telling and story revising, and its impacts for research and communities are considered. The primary concern of the deviant agenda of heroism science is the unity of knowledge, and the testability of narrative driven scientific inquiry. In this agenda, science as 'episteme' and heroism are unified in their core epistemic function. Heroism science is posited as a prime candidate for promoting science as enabler for improving the world, based on Hefner's (2010) concept of embodied science, and a non-linear, open and participatory model of science. Contemporary heroism research trends across the disciplines are mapped in a preliminary taxonomy of peak, emerging and low sub-fields of research activity. Heroism science is defined as a nascent multiple disciplinary field which seeks to reconceptualise heroism and its correlates through a close examination of the origins, types and processes of these interrelated phenomena.

The Initiation of Heroism Science

“…Over the centuries, philosophers and social scientists 1 Note: This article first appeared online on July 2015. Suggested citation: Allison, S. T. (2015). The initiation of heroism science.…”

“…The vast and diverse epistemological and methodological expanse of heroism science is underscored by Efthimiou and Allison"s (2015) call for the science to incorporate research approaches that are interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary. These terms are not interchangeable.…”

“…Transdisciplinary heroism science "integrates the natural, social and health sciences in a humanities context, and transcends their traditional boundaries" 7 . Efthimiou and Allison (2015) make the further claim that heroism science may, in fact, be a "deviant" interdisciplinary science in that it transcends the sort of knowledge that the disciplines themselves can provide (Fuller, 2013). A striking illustration of heroism"s multiple disciplinarity lies in its roots in both comparative mythology (Campbell, 1988) and embodied experience or the "lived heroic body" (Efthimiou, 2016).…”

Collective and Individual Sources of Women’s Creativity: Heroism and Psychological Types Involved in Enhancing the Talent of Emerging Leaders

“…This contribution is further enhanced by the fact that this methodology has not often been seen in empirical research based on analytical psychology, and also, above all, because of the fact of instrumentalizing this perspective, thereby enabling it to dialogue with other more consolidated approaches to leadership research. In this sense, for example, the prototypicality of leaders [2,18,19]-which has a cognitive base, also characteristic of questionnaires such as the TST and the Personal Values survey-may display components of interinfluence between leader and followers that should be taken into account both in the spheres of heroism [49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56] and psychological typology [31].…”

“…As an explanation of leaders' behavior, the study of the role of heroism reveals that the individual basis for what is considered heroic encompasses a series of specific features (categories, prototypes, self-representations) [49][50][51]. Heroes have also been known to fulfill a series of functions that can be a powerful social influence for other individuals [52][53][54]-and, specifically, in the relationships between leader and followers [55,56]. Moreover, the function of heroism in leadership is consistent with contributions linked to the idea of heroism as a tool for providing guidelines that influence the way individuals may lead their own lives [57][58][59][60].…”