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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... rational beings , be free from all determination as regards our compliance with it . ' Ought ' , argues Kant , implies ' can ' . What the moral law demands of us we must be free to perform . It is in the light of this freedom ...
... rational beings as ends rather than means that forms the foundation of what Kant refers to as the ' Kingdom of ends ' . A rational being is a member of this Kingdom when they subject themselves to the very laws they seek to establish ...
... rational principles and the rule of the will while the flesh is dominated by its lusts and passions . It is telling that whenever Plato talks about evil then animal imagery is not far away . What he has in mind is not any particu- lar ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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