X-Men and Philosophy

REBECCA HOUSEL is a professor of pop culture, creative writing, and medical humanities at Rochester Institute of Technology and contributed to Monty Python and Philosophy. J. JEREMY WISNEWSKI is an assistant professor of philosophy at Hartwick College and the editor of 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 Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy.

• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Superheroic Thanks to X-tra Special Humans and Mutants Alike! xiIntroduction: You Are About to Embark on an X-perience with “the Strangest Heroes of All” 1X1: ORIGINSTHE X-FACTOR IN THE EXISTENTIAL1. The Lure of the Normal: Who Wouldn’t Want to Be a Mutant? 5Patrick D. Hopkins2. Amnesia, Personal Identity, and the Many Lives of Wolverine 17Jason Southworth3. Is Suicide Always Immoral? Jean Grey, Immanuel Kant, and The Dark Phoenix Saga 27Mark D. White4. X-istential X-Men: Jews, Supermen, and the Literature of Struggle 38Jesse KavadloX2: EVOLUTIONCONSCIOUSNESS, CONSCIENCE, AND CURE5. Mad Genetics: The Sinister Side of Biological Mastery 53Andrew Burnett6. Layla Miller Knows Stuff: How a Butterfly Can Shoulder the World 66George A. Dunn7. X-Women and X-istence 85Rebecca Housel8. Mutant Rights, Torture, and X-perimentation 99Cynthia McWilliams9. When You Know You’re Just a Comic Book Character: Deadpool 107Joseph J. DarowskiX3: UNITEDHUMAN ETHICS AND MUTANT MORALITY IN THE X-VERSE10. Magneto, Mutation, and Morality 125Richard Davis11. Professor X Wants You 140Christopher Robichaud12. Dirty Hands and Dirty Minds: The Ethics of Mind Reading and Mindwriting 153Andrew Terjesen13. The Mutant Cure or Social Change: Debating Disability 170Ramona Ilea14. Mutants and the Metaphysics of Race 183Jeremy PierceX4: TH E LAST STANDWAR, TECHNOLOGY, DEATH, AND MUTANTKIND15. Mutant Phenomenology 197J. Jeremy Wisnewski16. War and Peace, Power and Faith 209Katherine E. Kirby17. High-Tech Mythology in X-Men 223George TeschnerCONTRIBUTORS: And Now, We’d Like to Introduce the X-Perts: Ladies and Gentlemen, the Amazing, Astonishing, Uncanny, Ultimate Authors from Xavier’s School for Gifted Philosophers! 236INDEX 241

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