Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice, and the Socratic Way (Popular Culture and Philosophy)
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Book Summary Information
Editor: Tom MorrisEditor: Matt Morris
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-05-10
ISBN: 0812695739
Number of pages: 300
Publisher: Open Court
Book Reviews of Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice, and the Socratic Way (Popular Culture and Philosophy)
Book Review: "Flame on!"
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the latest in a very entertaining and informative series: Popular Culture and Philosophy, published by Open Court. (My favorite is Seinfeld and Philosophy. Next on my list to read is Woody Allen and Philosophy. Why? "Because we need the eggs.")
This book proves how relevant both ancient philosophical arguments and modern superhero comic-book stories can be to today's life-and-death issues. Take Charles Taliaferro and Craig Lindahl-Urben's discussion of Galactus and his herald, the Silver Surfer, from the 1960s Fantastic Four. (I remember reading this comic book and the excitement I felt as I turned to the final panel to see the Silver Surfer approaching Earth from space.)
Galactus seems to be the most powerful being in the universe. If there ever was a superpower to compete with him, there isn't any more. Galactus needs energy to survive, and that means he chews up and spits out planets that have the natural resources he needs, like Earth.
Galactus argues with the Watcher about whether it's morally justifiable to destroy Earth and its inhabitants in order to survive. (I think the Marvel-universe Watchers - - their huge square heads and togas always freaked me out - - might have influenced Anne Rice's vampire-studying Talamasca and then the group, also called Watchers, who kept track of immortals like Duncan MacLeod, The Highlander. Not to mention Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who also gets a book in this series that I haven't read - - Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy. My wife says it would be just too icky for a man my age to know too much about Buffy and she's right.)
Back to the Fantastic Four:
Taliaferro and Lindahl-Urben say Galactus justifies his genocide by "making an ethical distinction between what he intends to do, and the unintended, though fully anticipated, consequences of it." Galactus doesn't want to kill billions of people, but he needs Earth's energy to live. To Galactus the human race is just collateral damage. Galactus isn't to blame because he doesn't INTEND to kill anyone. But can consequences be unintended if they're anticipated? Interesting philosophical question, but nothing to keep us up nights, I'm sure.
Like a lot of kids who were comic book fans in the early to mid-sixties, I gradually started reading more Marvel comic books and fewer DC. It's a truism that Marvel comic books were more philosophical and ethically challenging than DC. For instance, the Marvel hero Daredevil (and I liked this about the movie with Ben Affleck too) takes DC's Batman and asks if he has the right to be a vigilante just because a criminal killed his father and he thinks criminals escape punishment by the courts. (Daredevil is blind, so you wonder if even the writers thought he was justified.) But the right of Batman and all the other DC superheroes to do what they did was never questioned. Marvel comics, like Socrates, asked uncomfortable questions.
I always liked the Fantastic Four the best but didn't quite know why. Chris Ryall and Scott Tipton's essay answers the question. More than any other superheroes, the Fantastic Four were a family that we could compare our own families to.
Aeon J. Skoble's article on "Superhero Revisionism" made me read the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Watchmen. Watchmen reminds me of current events, too.
In Watchmen (Quis custodiet ipsos custodies? - - Who will watch the watchmen?) a superhero (villain?) averts a nuclear war that would destroy the planet by staging a hoax that kills a few million people. Some other superheroes find out what he did. Should they reveal the truth? If they do, it might undo the fragile peace and risk nuclear war again. Maybe it's time to stop arguing about whether the original crime was justified and make the best of the situation now. Or is the insane fascist superhero Rorschach right? The truth must be known and "evil must be punished."
The only thing in Superheroes and Philosophy that I didn't care for was a couple of essays that were more about religion than philosophy. I especially disliked Felix Tallon and Jerry Walls's propaganda about "the divine and human person of Jesus Christ." They quote the graphic novel Kingdom Come, about the "second coming of Superman," and see "[a] world, hungry for hope, [that] gradually surrenders its fears to the skies." (I didn't realize why I reacted so negatively to Kingdom Come a few years ago while flipping through it at the bookstore. Does anyone else think Alex Ross's superhero paintings belong in an exhibition of National Socialist art?)
But in Kingdom Come the world isn't just yielding up its fears, it's also renouncing its mind, its autonomy. Since the Enlightenment the difference between religion and philosophy has been that religion teaches us to believe and philosophy teaches us to think for ourselves.
I don't want to overdo this criticism of the book, but I think a lot of readers are tired of superstition and religion infusing books about philosophy and science.
More Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice, and the Socratic Way (Popular Culture and Philosophy) reviews:
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