Freshly Printed - allow 7 days lead
Couldn't load pickup availability
Watchmen and Philosophy
A Rorschach Test
William Irwin (Edited by), W Irwin (Author), Mark D. White (Edited by)
9780470396858, Wiley
Paperback / softback, published 16 January 2009
240 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.295 kg
Alan Moore's Watchmen is set in 1985 and chronicles the alternative history of the United States where the US edges dangerously closer to nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Within this world exists a group of crime busters, who don elaborate costumes to conceal their identity and fight crime, and an intricate plot to kill and discredit these "superheroes."
Alan Moore's Watchmen popularized the graphic novel format, has been named one of Time magazine's top 100 novels, and is now being made into a highly anticipated movie adaptation. This latest book in the popular Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series peers into Moore's deeply philosophical work to parse and deconstruct the ethical issues raised by Watchmen's costumed adventurers, their actions, and their world. From nuclear destruction to utopia, from governmental authority to human morality and social responsibility, it answers questions fans have had for years about Watchmen's ethical quandaries, themes, and characters.
Acknowledgments: They Left It Entirely in My Hands ix Introduction: A Rorschach Test 1 Part One The Politics of Power: Who Watches The Watchmen? 1 The Superman Exists, and He’s American: Morality in the Face of Absolute Power5 2 Can We Steer This Rudderless World? Kant, Rorschach, Retributivism, and Honor 19 3 Super-Vigilantes and the Keene Act 33 4 Superheroes and Supermen: Finding Nietzsche’s Übermensch in Watchmen 47 Part Two The Veidt Plan: Watchmen and Ethics 5 Means, Ends, and the Critique of Pure Superheroes 63 6 The Virtues of Nite Owl’s Potbelly 79 7 Rorschach: When Telling the Truth Is Wrong 91 Part Three The Metaphysics of Dr. Manhattan 8 Dr. Manhattan, I Presume? 103 9 A Timely Encounter: Dr. Manhattan and Henri Bergson 115 10 Free Will and Foreknowledge: Does Jon Really Know What Laurie Will Do Next, and Can She DoOtherwise? 125 11 I’m Just a Puppet Who Can See the Strings: Dr. Manhattan as a Stoic Sage 137 Part Four This Is Not Your Father’s Comic Book 12 “Why Don’t You Go Read a Book or Something?” 13 Watchwomen 173 14 Hooded Justice and Captain Metropolis: The Ambiguously Gay Duo 185 15 What’s So Goddamned Funny? The Comedian and Rorschach on Life’s Way 197 Contributors: Who Writes about the Watchmen? 215 Index: After the Masquerade 221
Christopher Robichaud
Jacob M. Held
Tony Spanakos
J. Keeping
J. Robert Loftis
Mark D. White
Alex Nuttall
James DiGiovanna
Christopher M. Drohan
Arthur Ward
Andrew Terjesen
Watchmen as Literature 157
Aaron Meskin
Sarah Donovan and Nick Richardson
Robert Arp
Taneli Kukkonen
Subject Areas: Philosophy [HP]
