MOOC course is here.

Secret identities vs public identities

Every superhero has secret identities. Only very few superheroes made public their identities e.g. Captain America and Iron Man.

What comes with having secret identities? Is keeping a secret the same thing as lying?

When you say something false, that’s not enough to prove that you’re lying. The concept of lying starts when you are saying something false with the intention of getting someone to believe that it’s true. The other conception of lying is saying something you believe as false with the intention of getting someone to believe as true.

We mostly find ourselves in between a Kantian Deontologist or a Utilitarian.

Superheroes tend to fight crime. They do what the police men had already intended to do. In a way, superheroes are public servants. But who gives superheroes the right to do what they do? To fight crime on their own?

The State

With authority, it always comes with the risks of abuse of authority. We want to be free with the State to pursue our life projects. This is a limited freedom but it is still better than the State of Nature e.g. Mad Max.

Across times and worlds

Time traveling can be described as jumping across different worlds.