ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: The Oscar Speech George Clooney Never Got to Make ix Introduction: Riddle Me This . . .  1 PART ONE DOES THE DARK KNIGHT ALWAYS DO RIGHT? 1 Why Doesn’t Batman Kill the Joker? 5Mark D. White 2 Is It Right to Make a Robin? 17James DiGiovanna 3 Batman’s Virtuous Hatred 28Stephen Kershnar PART TWO LAW, JUSTICE, AN D THE SOCIAL ORDER: WHERE DOES BATMAN FIT IN? 4 No Man’s Land: Social Order in Gotham City and New Orleans 41Brett Chandler Patterson 5 Governing Gotham 55Tony Spanakos 6 The Joker’s Wild: Can We Hold the Clown Prince Morally Responsible? 70Christopher  Robichaud PART THREE ORIGINS AND ETHICS: BECOMING THE CAPED CRUSADER 7 Batman’s Promise 85Randall M. Jensen 8 Should Bruce Wayne Have Become Batman? 101Mahesh Ananth and Ben Dixon 9 What Would Batman Do? Bruce Wayne as Moral Exemplar 114Ryan Indy Rhodes and David Kyle Johnson PART FOUR WHO IS THE BATMAN? (IS THAT A TRICK QUESTION?) 10 Under the Mask: How Any Person Can Become Batman 129Sarah K. Donovan and Nicholas P. Richardson 11 Could Batman Have Been the Joker? 142Sam Cowling and Chris Ragg 12 Batman’s Identity Crisis and Wittgenstein’s Family Resemblance 156Jason Southworth 13 What Is It Like to Be a Batman? 167Ron Novy PART FIVE  BEING THE BAT: INSIGHTS FROM EXISTENTIALISM AND TAOISM 14 Alfred, the Dark Knight of Faith: Batman and Kierkegaard 183Christopher M. Drohan 15 Dark Nights and the Call of Conscience 198Jason J. Howard 16 Batman’s Confrontation with Death, Angst, and Freedom 212David M. Hart PART SIX FRIEND, FATHER, . . . RIVAL? TH E MANY ROLES OF THE BAT 17 Why Batman Is Better Than Superman 227Galen Foresman 18 World’s Finest . . . Friends? Batman,Superman, and the Nature of Friendship 239Daniel P. Malloy 19 Leaving the Shadow of the Bat: Aristotle, Kant, and Dick Grayson on Moral Education 254Carsten Fogh Nielsen 20 The Tao of the Bat 267Bat-Tzu CONTRIBUTORS : The Clown Princes (and Princess) of Casuistry and Categorical Imperatives 279 INDEX : From the Secret Files of Oracle, Master Indexer to the DCU 285  

BLACKWELL PHILOSOPHY AND POP CULTURE SERIES This book has not been approved, licensed, or sponsored by any entity or person involved in creating or producing Batman, the comic, the film, or the TV series PHILOSOPHY/POP CULTURE Why doesn't Batman just kill the Joker and end everyone's misery? Can we hold the Joker morally responsible for his actions? Is Batman better than Superman? If everyone followed Batman's example, would Gotham be a better place? What is the Tao of the Bat? Batman is one of the most complex characters ever to appear in comic books, graphic novels, and on the big screen. What philosophical trials does this superhero confront in order to keep Gotham safe? Combing through seventy years of comic books, television shows, and movies, Batman and Philosophy explores how the Dark Knight grapples with ethical conundrums, moral responsibility, his identity crisis, the moral weight he carries to avenge his murdered parents, and much more. How does this caped crusader measure up against the teachings of Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Kierkegaard, and Lao Tzu?

In this, the latest in Wiley’s Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series (South Park and Philosophy, The Office and…, Metallica and…), editors White and Arp assert upfront, and without qualification (apparently, that’s the contributors’ job), their belief that Batman is “the most complex character ever to appear in comic books and graphic novels.” Exploring certain works that have broadened the philosophical undercurrents of the Batman mythos (Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One and The Dark Knight Returns are cited often, but rarely the new movies), a raft of professors, students and PhD candidates paint Bruce Wayne’s choices as, most often, either utilitarian or deontological, with basic descriptions of these systems helpfully provided for the novice. A few contributions broaden the discussion beyond the well-worn (origin stories of Batman and foes, etc.); casting butler Alfred as Kierkegaard’s “knight of faith” to Batman’s “knight of infinite resignation,” contributor Christopher M. Drohan actually gets close to the archetypal sources that keep the serialized exploits of Batman and other comic heroes from getting stale. Unfortunately, most of these essays get old fast. (July) (Publishers Weekly, July 28, 2008)