Your Phronimos Neighborhood Spider-Man
Virtue Ethics and Spider-Man
The next eight posts will all be about ethics through the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If that’s your thing, awesome. If it’s not, ignore the next eight posts. I’ve been making courses to teach to students online and in-person, so this is what you’re all stuck with.
Also, saying it now so you can’t yell at me later: spoilers out the wazoo for every single one of these posts.
Let’s begin
Superheroes are fascinating, because we can’t exactly name what makes someone a hero. I invite you to list the reasons why Hawkeye and Deadpool are both heroes. How full would the middle of that Venn diagram be?
What this series of posts will be exploring is the guiding principles of our beloved MCU heroes—and the philosophies behind them.
The Birth of Virtue Ethics
The first fully formalized system of Western ethics originated in ancient Greece with our good friend Uncle Aristotle. Aristotle (384–322 BC) focused a great deal on how to live a good life and formulated Virtue Ethics.
For starters, Aristotle believed everything had a purpose, or telos, and a proper function, or ergon. He figured the ergon of the human being is to live in accordance with reason, which makes us different from animals (haha, stupid turtles haven’t invented existential dread). Doing so will bring us to our purpose: flourishing. His answer to achieving our purpose through rational action is virtue, or aretē.
His definition of virtue is: “Virtue, then, is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, relative to us, this being determined by reason and by that reason by which the person of practical wisdom would determine it.”
Which begs the obvious follow-up question: what the hell does that mean?
The Formula for Flourishing
To Aristotle, virtue is a state of being through cultivated, wisely acted-out habits. For example, regularly acting brave will make your disposition one of bravery. In order to achieve habitual courage, you must rationally determine what your course of action should be. Good news is, you’re not on your own—there’s a cheat sheet.
Virtues lie in the Golden Mean, the wise option between extremes, or vices. For example, courage lies between recklessness and cowardice. Every virtue strikes a balance between two vices: one of excess, one of deficiency.
There are quite a few virtues—some intellectual, some moral—but practicing one sharpens your ability to master the other. This is “practice makes perfect” in action.
Once you learn to habituate yourself to naturally find the Golden Mean and this becomes automatic, you are functioning excellently—ergon as hell, my friend. This brings you to flourishing, your ultimate purpose: eudaimonia.
There are three conditions for getting to this point:
Knowledge
You know what you’re doing and why
Right motive
You do the action because it’s good, not for applause or reward
Stable character
You consistently embody virtue and show up accordingly
If you embody all of the above, you are an exemplar of Virtue Ethics and are to be emulated. Such an individual is called a phronimos, or wise individual.
Homecoming: Habituation
The MCU Spider-Man trilogy is a straight-up Aristotelian master class. When we first meet Peter Parker in Berlin during Captain America: Civil War (topic of next post), he acts starstruck, amateur, and unsure. He was clearly a kid cosplaying as a superhero.
Homecoming is the first Spider-Man film in the MCU, and he’s certainly not there yet. We see Peter constantly screwing up, pissing off the neighbors, and making reckless decisions. Tony Stark, the phronimos of the film, emphasizes to Peter that he needs to exercise temperance (the virtue of self-control) and build himself as a hero slowly and carefully.
Peter didn’t listen, running from place to place while acting with good intentions but very little consideration. Whether it be at school or while chasing the Vulture, the film’s villain, it’s impulsive. Things finally hit a low point, resulting in a destroyed ship and a furious Tony. Tony took the suit back from Peter with a great exchange:
Peter: You don’t understand! This is all I have. I’m nothing without this suit.
Tony: If you’re nothing without this suit, then you shouldn’t have it.
Peter was imitating substance, but the three conditions weren’t there and the habits were still forming. Peter, crushed, went on with his life for a very brief period before discovering the Vulture’s evil plot.
Being the only one who could save the day, Peter risked his life without his suit to act out of duty. After saving the day, Peter went the extra mile and even saved the villain, which was awfully considerate.
Tony then takes Peter back and offers to make him an Avenger. Peter, whose first two of three conditions are starting to bloom, has the knowledge of what he needs to do and a newly matured motivation for heroism. He declines and decides to cultivate his habits as a “friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.”
Great movie, I tell ya.
Far From Home: The Golden Mean
Far From Home is a movie where Peter is not only in the unfamiliar territory of Europe, but the uncharted territory of being Spider-Man without Tony. He’s trying to balance being Peter Parker and Spider-Man, with Nick Fury pulling him one way and MJ pulling him the other.
Tony, anticipating his eventual demise, left a legacy for Peter called E.D.I.T.H. (Even Dead, I’m The Hero), which is basically the keys to Iron Man’s castle. Peter didn’t feel ready to succeed Tony, so he foolishly handed it over to Mysterio. Mistakes happen.
The virtue Peter needs to find is courage, as the crisis of the film stems from him being in a deficit. He is too afraid without Tony to act in accordance with reason and pays for it dearly. By the end of the movie, not only has he found the Golden Mean, he’s also reconciled Peter Parker and Spider-Man, letting MJ fully into his life.
Peter officially steps into Iron Man’s shoes on Happy Hogan’s plane. It’s there he acknowledges the truth of who Tony was, who he is, and what he must do. Back in Black plays as Peter picks out his suit—the song from the opening of Iron Man, mirroring the origin story of his phronimos.
Upon defeating Mysterio, Peter takes control of E.D.I.T.H., once again spares his enemy, and achieves the third condition of stable character.
No Way Home: Eudaimonia
The third and final movie was the best Wattpad fanfic ever to make it to the big screen. It starts where the second movie ends: Mysterio telling the world who Peter is. This affects not only Peter, but his loved ones.
Peter asks Doctor Strange to change everyone’s memories, things go awry, multiverse stuff happens, things get very canonical, and it’s a good time. It’s the end that’s really the focus.
MCU Peter learns the ethos of Spider-Man: with great power comes great responsibility. Peter not only spends the movie rescuing villains, but he is finally tasked with the hardest job of all: saving his friends. He has Doctor Strange erase everyone’s memories of him.
Peter knew his purpose would take the form of heroism, which would be achieved through selfless courage, and could be made possible after a quick trip to the fabric store. The final shot shows him not where he wanted to be, but where he was meant to be. The eudaimonia of Spider-Man is depicted in a classic suit, web-slinging over his beloved Manhattan.
Stay tuned
Next post we’ll be covering Captain America: Civil War and the debate between Kant and Mill, so get hyped!
Great post for your reading enjoyment!