"People who simply live up to their everyday responsibilities are suddenly becoming idols, personalities and heroes in this country." Mrs. De Falco on her husband Gregorio De Falco (pictured below).
Leaving aside the pathologies of contemporary Italy (or modern society?), one of the most "joyful" aspects of Francis Hutcheson's moral theory is that living up to everyday responsibility that comes with one's professional role comes out as heroic:
The applying a mathematical Calculation to moral Subjects, will appear perhaps at first extravagant and wild; but some Corollarys, which are easily and certainly deduc’d below,* may shew the Conveniency of this Attempt, if it could be further pursu’d. At present, we shall only draw this one‖, which seems the most joyful imaginable, even to the lowest rank of Mankind, viz. “That no external Circumstances of Fortune, no involuntary Disadvantages, can exclude any Mortal from the most heroick Virtue.” For how small soever the Moment of publick Good be, which any one can accomplish, yet if his Abilitys are proportionably small, the Quotient, which expresses the Degree of‖ Virtue, may be as great as any whatsoever. Thus, not only the Prince, the Statesman, the General, are capable of true Heroism, tho these are the chief Characters, whose Fame is diffus’d thro various Nations and Ages; but when we find in an honest Trader, the kind Friend, the faithful prudent Adviser, the charitable and hospitable Neighbour, the tender Husband and affectionate Parent, the sedate yet chearful Companion, the generous Assistant of Merit, the cautious Allayer of Contention and Debate, the Promoter of Love and good Understanding among Acquaintances; if we consider, that these were all the good Offices which his Station in the World gave him an Opportunity of performing to Mankind, we must judge this Character really as amiable, as those, whose external Splendor dazzles an injudicious World into an Opinion, “that they are the only Heroes in Virtue.”--An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue in Two Treatises,
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