Shelby Stotts

Health Ethical Philosophy Project

September 29, 2012

Batman
My first character is Batman, who is the superhero alias for Bruce
Wayne. Batman's title is "The Dark Night," and his job is to help keep Gotham
City safe from evil. He is a vigilante crime fighter and has both positive and
negative roles in society. His positive role in society is that he helps keep the
people of Gotham safe from harm (mostly.) Although, The Joker vowed to kill
a citizen every day until Batman unmasked himself and revealed his true
identity. Thusly, Batman also has a negative role in society because he
indirectly causes people to be killed. Batman is the main character in the
movie.
Batman has a mostly Utilitarianist Teleological approach to life. I say
this because he often overlooks rules, such as he will hurt people to
interrogate information out of them, and he tries to do what is good for
Gotham City, but does not always abide to the rules. Some of Batman's
principles is that he does not kill people, and does not put civilians in
harm's way. At one point in the movie, he is holding a man off of a building to
interrogate him, and the man says "A fall from this height won't kill me" to
which Batman replies: "I'm counting on it" and drops the man, breaking his
legs. A virtue of Batman's is Courage, which greatly affects his life. An
example of courage is when he gets Two-Face not to kill Gordon's son, even
though Two-Face has a gun. Some morals of Batman's is that he always tries
to do the right thing, and promote common welfare. He also tries to avoid
anyone being killed. Some examples are that he puts himself in danger to
save the hostages that are dressed as henchmen, and he catches Rachael
after she falls off of a building. Lastly, a value of his is that he wants to keep
criminals off the street, and he holds this belief deeply. One of his
moderators is his butler, Alfred, whom he consults about many topics.
At the end of the movie, Batman's philosophy has not changed. He still
wants to do good, and does not want recognition, he just wants to help. He
does this by standing between Two-Face and Gordon's family. Batman does
lead a positive life, because he does what he aims to do, which is help
innocent civilians and keep criminals off of the streets. He is the Dark Night.

Shelby Stotts
Health Ethical Philosophy Project
September 29, 2012

Joker
My next character is The Joker, the main aggressor of the film. His title
is "The Joker," and his job is being the "bad guy," and by that I mean being a
hitman, robbing banks, and pursuing the Batman. Joker has a mostly
negative role in society. He was killing civilians because he wanted Batman
to reveal his true identity, and he robbed major banks. His relation to Batman
is that he is the Batman's arch rival.
The Joker has a mostly Hedonistic Teleological philosophy. He does
what he needs to to get his desired end result, which is getting Batman to
reveal his secret identity. of course, Batman does not ever really reveal his
identity, but Joker kills people in an attempt to get him to. Some of Joker's
principles are that he does not want to kill Batman, and does not want to
conform to the norms of society. In the movie, Batman asks why the Joker
wants to kill him, and Joker says, "Kill you?! If I killed you, everything would
be boring. What would I do? Rob banks, rip off mob bosses? No, you are just
too much fun." Joker also states when Batman asks him why he kills, "When
the chips are down, these; 'civilized' people would eat each other. People
would kill for a chance to survive. I am just ahead of the curve." Some of
Joker's values are that society will always do what it needs to do to survive,
and you can use fear as motivation. An example of this is when The Joker has
people on two cruise ships, both of the ships are loaded with bombs. Both
boats have a detonator that will supposedly explode the other boat. They
have until midnight for someone to detonate one of the boats, or Joker will
blow up both of the ships. A virtue of Joker's is determination. Even though
Batman foils Joker's plans at so many times, Joker keeps trying to take over
Gotham. Some morals of Joker's are that he always uses knives, because you
can see the victim suffer, and he uses weapons that are cheap, like TNT,
gunpowder, and dynamite. His moderator is Batman, because Joker tells him
what his plans are, and wants to see Batman's reaction.
At the end of the movie, Joker's philosophy has not changed. He is still
willing to do whatever he needs to so he can reveal Batman's identity. Joker
leads a negative life, because he kills people and often gets arrested or hurt
by Batman or other enemies, like mob bosses.

Shelby Stotts
Health Ethical Philosophy Project
September 29, 2012

Two-Face
Two-Face is one of the main aggressors in the film, along with The
Joker. His title is Two-Face, or Harvey Dent, and his job is trying to avenge his
girlfriend's death. He leads a fairly negative role in society, because he kills
people and does not realize that killing will not bring Rachael back. His
relation to Batman is that they used to be friends, but Batman now wants to
stop Two-face from killing.
Two-Face has a mostly Hedonistic Teleological philosophy, because he
does what he thinks is good so he can try and avenge Rachael. Some of his
principles are that he does not want to leave Rachael un-avenged, and he
does not want to leave anyone responsible alive. For example, he tracked
down one of the cops that chose to save Harvey instead of Rachael, and shot
him. He also shot Batman because he went to save Harvey instead of
Rachael. Some of his morals are that he uses his lucky two-headed silver
dollar to decide the fates of his victims, and his passion for Rachael that he
decides who to kill. He flips the coin, and decides the fate if it lands burned
side up or down. Some of his values are that he can instill justice in an unjust
world, and he can avenge Rachael's death. He believes that by killing those
responsible, he can avenge her death. A virtue of his is Justice, because he is
killing because he believes that it will justify the acts of murder because he is
avenging Rachael.
Two-Face's philosophy does not change at the end of the movie. He
dies trying to hurt Gordon's family, so Gordon will know what he went to as
he talked to Rachael as she was about to die. He lived a pretty negative life,
because he was killing, and eventually died a villain, even though he was
one of the greatest heroes in Gotham.