Spider-Man and Philosophy by William Irwin

Author:William Irwin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Published: 2012-03-29T20:00:00+00:00

Transformation, Virtue, and Vice

Changes to the body involve taking on or losing ways of perceiving, feeling, and acting in the world. Through these changes, the world also appears differently. Interest and feeling cause us to see aspects of things that we didn’t see before, and new abilities cause us to perceive things as obstacles or opportunities in new ways. Yet these modifications to the body and the corresponding changes to our perceptions of the world always contribute to our goodness or badness because they also involve choices in real situations. Through the new opportunities it presents to us, bodily transformation is not just a matter of what we are, but a matter of what we ought or ought not to do. The way in which bodily transformations change the whole person points us to the holistic vision of virtue ethics.2

Spider-Man’s bodily transformation doesn’t, in and of itself, make him a superhero, just as Norman Osborn’s gaining new strength doesn’t by itself make him evil. Their transformations are not only a matter of organic changes but involve choices, reasons, and an interplay between the new abilities, the situations in which they find themselves, and their previous character. To take on his new abilities fully, Parker must practice them, so that they become habits, and so that his body really gains the motor knowledge necessary for him to act as Spider-Man. This practice takes place in concrete situations, some of which he chooses and others that are forced on him. Parker chooses to use his new abilities in different situations, which help him develop virtues, rather than vices. Likewise, Osborn’s new strength helps make him vicious because of the choices that led to his taking on a bodily transformation in the first place.

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) described virtue as “the perfection of a power.”3 We have several natural powers—our emotions and desires (such as love, anger, joy, sadness); our senses and our ability to move; our intellectual abilities to know things in various ways; and our volitional abilities to deliberate and choose. Each of these powers is oriented toward goals in the world, and it takes practice and the formation of a habit to make sure that these powers reach their proper goals. Indeed, it is a struggle to discover what our proper goals are and to perform actions that will enable us to reach those goals consistently. Virtue shapes and strengthens our desires so that we want to reach those goals, are motivated to reach them, and actually have the ability to reach them. Developing virtue requires developing one’s bodily abilities and feelings so that one has the intuition to know what to do in a given situation (Aquinas called this prudence) and so that one has the bodily knowledge and ability necessary to carry out virtuous action.

Spider-Man struggles a great deal with deciding what will bring him fulfillment and with choosing the right thing to do. Each choice he makes leads to a further modification of his bodily abilities and his perception of the world, as well as to growth in virtue or vice.

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