Superhero Ethics (2019)

Martin, J. (2019, March 26). Taking superheroes seriously: Three implications for society based on Travis Smith’s ‘Superhero Ethics’.

• Explores the implications of political scientist Travis Smith’s Superhero Ethics (2018) for everyday sociopolitical discourse.

• Focuses on the importance of clarifying areas of agreement, the nature of the problem we are trying to solve, and the criteria we are using to evaluate issues and solutions relevant to the problem.

“When it comes to socio-political discourse within a democratic society, I think it could do us some good to apply Smith’s (2018) approach to superheroes to our own conversations and debates about relevant issues. Just as Smith first specified an area of general agreement (i.e., an “ethical core”) by which an analysis of superheroes could follow, as participants in a democratic society, we should consider taking inventory of our areas of general agreement regarding an issue before articulating our areas of disagreement.”