David Kyle Johnson is an assistant professor of philosophy at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He has contributed to several books in the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series, including Family Guy and Philosophy and The Office and Philosophy. William Irwin is a professor of philosophy at King's College. He originated the philosophy and popular culture genre of books as coeditor of the bestselling The Simpsons and Philosophy and has overseen recent titles, including Batman and Philosophy, House and Philosophy, and Watchmen and Philosophy.

• Acknowledgments: Godsends ixIntroduction: The Wonder of Heroes 1Part One Heroic Obligations1 Above the Social Contract? How Superheroes Break Society 6Robert Sharp2 Heroes, Obligations, and the Ethics of Saving the World 22J. K. Miles3 Corporate Capers: The Moral Dimensions of Working for the Company 35Christopher Robichaud4 With Great Creativity Comes Great Imitation: Problems of Plagiarism and Knowledge 49Jason Southworth Copyrighted MaterialPart Two Supermen, Samurai, and Invisible Men5 Time and the Meaning of Life in Heroes and Nietzsche 66Tyler Shores6 Hiro Nakamura, Bushido, and Hero Archetypes 79Erik Daniel Baldwin7 Plato on Gyges’ Ring of Invisibility: The Power of Heroes and the Value of Virtue 93Don AdamsPart Three Metaphysics, Regular Physics, And Heroic Time Travel8 The Foreknowledge of a Painter, the Fate of a Hiro 110David Kyle Johnson9 Time to Be a Hero: Branching Time and Changing the Future 123Morgan Luck10 Heroes and the Ethics of Time Travel: Does the Present Matter? 140David Faraci11 The Science of Heroes: Flying Men, Immortal Samurai, and Destroying the Space-Time Continuum 155Andrew Zimmerman Jones12 Pseudoscience, Scientific Revolutions, and Dr. Chandra Suresh 174David Kyle Johnson and Andrew Zimmerman JonesPart Four The Minds of Heroes13 Peter Petrelli, the Haitian, and the Philosophical Implications of Memory Loss 184Peter Kirwan14 Understanding Other Minds: Philosophical Foundations of Heroes ’ Mind-Reading Powers 200Fabio Paglieri15 Peter Petrelli: The Power of Empathy 222Andrew TerjesenPart Five Villains, Family, and Lying16 Are the Heroes Really Good? 240Peter S. Fosl17 Heroes and Family Obligations 254Ruth Tallman and Jason Southworth18 Concealment and Lying: Is That Any Way for a Hero to Act? 268Michael R. BerryContributors: Our Heroes 281Chandra Suresh’s List: A Catalogue Of Powers, Both Natural And Synthetic 287Index: The Power Of Omniscience 301

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