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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... centuries by thinkers such as Johann Gottlieb Fichte ( 1762–1814 ) and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel ( 1770-1831 ) and , it could be argued , to disastrous effect for the early part of the twentieth century . The universal vs the ...
... Century ' - men such as Helvetius , with his doctrine of ́enlightened self - interest " " , Locke , Reid , Condillac , Kant and the ' atheist d'Holbach , the deist Voltaire and Rousseau ' - all these ' defenders of individualism ...
... century in philosophers and theologians alike . Nineteenth century liberal theologians such as Ritschl and Harnack put great emphasis upon the will as the source of ethical motivation and thus spirituality . For Albrecht Ritschl ( 1822 ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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