Movie; “X-Men” movies,“The Hulk”, Avengers”
Project description:
Assignment: The goal of this assignment is to demonstrate your ability to apply an ethical theory (only the following ethical theories may be used: Mill’s utilitarianism, Kantian deontologism, or Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics) to a scenario presented in a movie. Choose a movie from the list provided below. While watching the movie, choose a decision (if using utilitarianism or deontology) or an action that has a relation to a character trait (if you are using virtue ethics) that you believe involves a difficult ethical/moral dilemma. You must use a moral theory that you DID NOT USE FOR YOUR GROUP ASSIGNMENT. You are not, at any point, to include your personal opinion or beliefs. You must use only the ethical theory from the three listed above. Any deviation, of any sort, whatsoever, from the moral theory chosen will result in a zero “0” for the assignment.
In an essay of between 1000 to 1500 words
Complete the following requirements:
Briefly describe the situation/decision you have chosen from the movie.
Analyze the situation/decision according to one of the following: Mill’s utilitarianism, Kantian deontology, or Aristotle’s virtue ethics. In your analysis, briefly describe the important aspects of the ethical theory you have chosen. Then discuss whether the decision made by the characters involved in the situation should be considered moral or immoral according to the ethical theory you are using.
List of movies from which you must choose (I have chosen movie adaptations of comic book characters because comic books actually are FULL of moral dilemmas, and because we usually just think of these movies as silly action movies, when in fact, we can think about them philosophically)
ONLY CHOOSE ONE MOVIE TO WRITE ABOUT
Any of the “Iron Man” movies (all are good choices, but the first two may be better choices, and virtue ethics is an easy one to use here…)
“Captain America”
Any of the “X-Men” movies (although some are just plain better movies than others…)
Either of “The Hulk” recent movie adaptations (not the old-school tv show….)
“Thor” (obviously just the first one is an option here…)
“The Avengers” movie that came out in 2012.
The “Batman” film “Dark Knight Rises”