[Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture 34] • Spider-Man and Philosophy by Irwin, William -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Contents Title Copyright Dedication Acknowledgments Introduction Part One: The Spectacular Life of Spider-Man?

Chapter 1: Does Peter Parker have a Good Life?

Paul Kurtz—A Life of Pleasure and Care for Others Ayn Rand—Life and Integrity Epictetus—Self-Control, Duty, and Knowledge of the World Viktor Frankl—Meaning and Sacrifice Thomas Aquinas—God and Virtue What Next?

Chapter 2: What Price Atonement?

Death and Taxes Ethics and the Infinite Every Other is Wholly Other Remaining in Debt

Chapter 3: “My Name is Peter Parker”

To Unmask or Not to Unmask The Irresistible Iron Man But on the Other Hand . . . The Tangled Web that is Consequentialism Oops! Remember the Kingpin? Give Up? Never!

Part Two: Responsibility-Man

Chapter 4: “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”

Chapter 5: Does Great Power Bring Great Responsibility?

Responsibility Does as Responsibility is Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Does Whatever a Samaritan can Your Friendly Neighborhood Samaritan The Do’s and Don’ts of Duties Unmasking the Bad Samaritan Spider-Man: Hero or Menace? How Great is that?

Chapter 6: With Great Power Comes Great Culpability

Peter Parker’s Good and Bad Luck The Web of Moral Luck The Two Peter Parkers The Problem with Moral Luck Peter Parker: Agent of Regret Aunt May’s Dark Secret Power and Responsibility

Part Three: Spider-Sense and the Self

Chapter 7: Why is My Spider-Sense Tingling?

Getting the Sense of Things, Directly What Danger Looks Like The Relative Nature of Danger Is it Really Dangerous? When the Spider-Sense Fails Spider-Sense, Spider-Judgment, or Both? Did We Learn Anything?

Chapter 8: Red or Black

A Hero Transformed Selves Transformed The Transforming Self

Chapter 9: With Great Power

Changing the World Transformation, Virtue, and Vice Great Responsibility A Story about a Girl

Part Four: Arachnids “R” Us: Technology and the Human, all too Human

Chapter 10: Transhumanism

Enhancement Anxieties Like a God among Men A Lucky Guy A Strange Liberation Movement Equality and Biology Enhancing People and Creating Monsters Creating MJ’s Smile

Chapter 11: Maximum Clonage

Gwen Stacy is Alive . . . and, Well . . . ?! The Shattering Secret of Cloning The Game of Life—What the Saga Gets Wrong (and Right) about Cloning The Worth of a Clone Game’s End

Part Five: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

Chapter 12: Justice versus Romantic Love

The Primacy of Justice The Primacy of the Romantic Romantic Justice or Just Romantic

Chapter 13: Love, Friendship, and Being Spider-Man

A Fine Fellow Sacrificial Love MJ Hearts Spider-Man Some Friend You are! You Stole My Girl! Killed My Father! Sacrificing Superheroes

Chapter 14: Spidey’s Tangled Web of Obligations

Spinning a Web of Deceit The Alien Symbiote—Not Your Typical Pile of Dirty Laundry Here Come the Bad Guys! Fighting Friends Gone Bad Lending a Hand—Or Some Webbing

Part Six: The Amazing Speaking Spider: Jokes, Stories, and the Choices We Make

Chapter 15: The Quipslinger

What’s so Funny, Webhead? Joke’s on You, Bad Guy! Professor Spidey and the Bad Guys Spidey Corrects Heroes The Punch Line

Chapter 16: The Sound and the Fury behind “One More Day”

Do We Lack Character? Enough about Normal People—What about Superheroes? So, Who’s Responsible for this Outrage? Secret Interpretation What if You had One More Day?

Chapter 17: Spider-Man and the Importance of Getting Your Story Straight

Do We Always have a Choice? What Storytelling is all about Not Every Action that Glitters is Virtuous The Virtue of Spider-Man’s Story

Contributors Index