Jason and Batman: Kantian vs Utilitarian Philosophies (Should The Joker Die?) Unedited
JadeNutling • 12 Jul 2023 •
Started to study Philosophy. Picked up on something I found super cool (nerd rant coming through!)
Batman represents the Kantian philosophy of morals. He has a strict moral code which he follows to a fault - no matter what, Batman will never kill. He won’t even kill the Joker. Not even after the Joker killed his son. He considered it, he thought he was gonna do it, but he went back to his moral code before he found the Joker.
In following the Kantian philosophy, you put an emphasis on your intention, not the consequence.
The intention Batman had with the Joker after Jason’s death was to kill him. But killing is bad, obviously. Killing any human is murder, and murder is criminal, and Batman’s one purpose is to fight criminals. And so Batman will never kill the Joker.
Jason Todd or Red Hood represents Utilitarianism in this argument. Jason is willing to kill the Joker, and the reason why is a reflection of this philosophy.
Utilitarianism is all about the consequence, and not the intention.
Jason knows the Joker’s wrath, knows what he has done to people in the past and what he could do to people in the future. Joker is a pest of the world, one Jason feels he has a destiny to snuff out. The consequences of killing the Joker is most important to him.
Killing the Joker means nobody will ever die by the Joker’s hand again, nobody will suffer his torture, nobody will be paralysed, or traumatised, by the Clown Prince of Crime. So Jason believes his intention is irrelevant. Murderer or not, Jason knows he needs to kill the Joker.
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Wait, Batman has a son?! That shows how out of the loop I am on the Dark Knight of Gotham. Congratulations on your first post. Welcome to the community.
Very, very interesting first post! Keep them coming :) (BTW, I also confess I did not know Batman had a son)
@JadeNutling Hey Jade welcome to Lifelog, and congrats on your first post! Love the topic, studied it in university. Always wondered - why not both? 🤔 If I was Batman/Red Hood, I’d just permanently maim Joker. No one’s killed, and he’s effectively stopped from ever causing harm again. Best of both haha. But that wouldn’t make for fun comics to read…