Heroes and VillainsHercules, Jesus, James Bond, Luke Skywalker, Gandalf, Frodo, Harry Potter, Buffy Summers, Spiderman, Batman, Captain Kirk, Dr. Who, Darth Vader, Sauron, Voldemort, Lex Luthor, Dr. Doom, the Daleks, the Borg. Almost anybody living in the developed West would be able to group these individuals into two camps: the heroes and the villains. However, what criteria they may use to do this is less clear. Mike Alsford introduces us to a range of heroic and villainous archetypes on a journey through film, television, comic books, and literature. On the way, he addresses questions such as: What is a true hero? What is a true villain? Have we misunderstood these terms? What kind of societal values do our mythical heroes and villains represent? In trying to understand the extremes of hero and villain we are made more aware of our own ethical standards and given a space in which to explore contemporary concerns over notions of right and wrong, good and bad. |
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... central role in the development of modern western philosophy and theology . Kant's concern with scepticism was catalysed by his encounter with the work of the Scottish philosopher David Hume . At a moment in history when natural science ...
... central for Kant's understanding of person- hood . All rational beings , claims Kant , must be regarded as ends in themselves and never as means . It is things and not people that are conditioned and rigidly dependent upon nature and ...
... central to our ethical stance towards the other be they other people or the non - human world in general . Knowing that we can do a thing and actually doing it are two very different things as our utilisation of various - technologies ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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