X-Men and Philosophy : Astonishing Insight and Uncanny Argument in the Mutant X-Verse

by Editor: William Irwin (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania ); Editor: Rebecca Housel; Editor: J. Jeremy Wisnewski (Hartwick College)

• ISBN13: 9780470730355
• ISBN10: 0470730358
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2009-05-01
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Is mind reading an invasion of privacy?What's wrong with genetic experimentation?How many identities can one person have?Are the X-Men advocates of civil rightsand social change?Do mutants have "human" rights?X-Men is one of the most popular comic-book franchises ever, captivating millions with its teeming X-Verse of genetic mutants who have been unleashing their unique special powers in the service of both good and evil since 1963. Focusing on identity and personal conflict as much as action and adventure, this bestselling series is full of complex characters and storylines that are deeply influenced by important philosophical questions. Through philosophical greats like Aristotle, Sartre, Camus, Levinas, and others, X-Men and Philosophy shows how this remarkable series speaks not only to generations of pop culture audiences, but to the very heart of the human condition.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments: Superheroic Thanks to X-tra Special Humans and Mutants Alike!

Introduction: You are about to embark on an X-perience with "the strangest heroes of all"

The X-Factor In The Existential

The Lure of the Normal: Who Wouldn't Want to be a Mutant

Amnesia, Personal Identity and the Many Lives of Wolverine

Is Suicide Always Moral: Jean Grey, Kant, and The Dark Phoenix Saga

X-istential X-Men: Jews, Supermen and the Literature of Struggle

Consciousness, Conscience, And Cure

Mad Genetics: The Sinister Side of Biological Mastery

Layla Miller Knows Stuff: How a Butterfly Can Shoulder the World

X-Women and X-istence

Mutant Rights, Torture and X-perimentation

When You Know You're Just a Comic Book Character: Deadpool

Human Ethics And Mutant Morality In The X-Verse

Magneto, Mutation and Morality

Professor X Wants You

Dirty Hands and Dirty Minds: The Ethics of Mindreading and Mindwriting

The Mutant Cure or Social Change: Debating Disability

Mutants and the Metaphysics of Race

War, Technology, Death, And Mutant-Kind

Mutant Phenomonology

War and Peace, Power and Faith

High-Tech Mythology in X-Men

Contributors: And Now, We'd Like to Introduce the X-Perts: Ladies and Gentleman, the Amazing, Astonishing, Uncanny, Ultimate Authors from Xavier's School for Gifted Philosophers!

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.