Abstract

This chapter talks about three basic schools of ethics—utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics. This discussion will not only help people situate Captain America's ethics within moral philosophy more broadly, but also help people understand the ethical points of view of other people in the Marvel Universe. Many virtue ethicists, especially Aristotle, emphasize the importance of role models or moral exemplars, people who demonstrate good behavior for others to emulate. Captain America is an example of mature virtue, a role model for the rest of the Marvel heroes‐but not without imperfections. The chapter explains that while utilitarianism is easy to define and deontology less clear‐cut, virtue ethics is the most difficult to nail down because it comes in many varieties. When virtue ethics was “revived” in the mid‐twentieth century, many philosophers hailed its benefits compared to deontology and utilitarianism. Recently, scholars have pointed out similarities between Kantian deontology and virtue ethics.