THE FOUNDATION EVENT: The death of Harvey
Dent, projected as a murder
THE FOUNDATION STORY: The lie: The Batman is the murderer, and Harvey is the innocent, the hero - Gordan tries to tell the truth, but backs away from it at the last moment because he doesn’t think Gotham is ready for it. (consider: and so, because the problem is never properly defined, Gotham’s solution is no solution).
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Is a BIG picture approach
 it begins with VULNERABILITY: ‘I don’t know’, ‘I don’t understand’,
 it is impelled by COMPASSION: ‘I care/I empathise/ ‘I see you; I hear you’
 it is tempered by the REALITY and TRUTH horizon: no action will succeed without this: we have choices
 it is enlightened by REVELATION: as I study and research the problem/the issue, the problem is defined and a
solution may be revealed: often counter-intuitive, unexpected, surprising
 it is undergirded by GOODNESS (the conviction that there is a ‘goodness’ beyond us that works with us
 it is an approach, arguably, that renders ethical systems effective; that makes any project likely to succeed
 it is an approach that helps us to understand why Bruce Wayne’s, John Robin Blake’s project must fail i.e. they live in illusion, in unreality

Note: because Dead Man Walking (DMW) captures the journey of a morally responsive approach so well, as an exercise apply each of the above steps in order to define Poncelet and Sister Helen’s journey towards truth , reality and goodness

Question: Why is the prison Chaplain’s use of the religious symbolism of communion, baptism, confession and the rite of forgiveness so empty? In what ways does the moral transcendent approach demonstrate their reality?
Consequentialism: systems of action that weigh up what is right and wrong in terms of the consequences i.e. I choose this action rather than that because these consequences are less impactful than those- also the ‘goodness’ of the consequences
“that action is best that produces the greatest good for the greatest number'' (Jeremy Bentham).
(cf.,utilitarianism: hedonistic i.e. the net hedonic value (higher and lower pleasure) e.g. Bentham and Mill (utility of as life), pluralist not just pleasure or pain: knowledge, love, friendship, courage health –intrinsic, non moral;
preference the degree to which one’s actual (non moral) preferences are satisfied; also cf., situation ethics ref: Joe Jenkins’ ‘Sex and Ethics’ for Natural Law, Kant & Sex, Utilitarianism, Ethical
Theory I Hansell & Jenkins
Non-consequentialism: based on properties intrinsic to the action, not on its consequences… Kant is as far removed from a consequentialist ethic as is possible.
For Kant, the intention or motive of an agent is the source of moral evaluation. So, is it ok to lie ever. Kant says no.
But, what about if you are harboring Jews during the Holocaust and the Nazi soldiers ask you if you've seen any Jews?
Kant says it is wrong to tell a lie no matter how prudential the situation. The main reason is because by lying to another person you are fundamentally contravening the autonomy of the other person. It violates the categorical imperative.
THE PROBLEM (perhaps) is how to escape the
cycle of criminality and violence: note how in
TDKR Bane (the new ‘Joker’) is motivated by resentment (Ressentiment) which becomes revenge: note also how twisted the ‘solution’ of
Bane is (and those who escape the League of
Shadows – yet another failed project): a kind of enforced and imposed dialectic materialist crisis, to bring about a new order; also refer to Social
Darwinism (note however: unlike the Joker, we now suddenly have ‘plans’)…
Thus THE SOLUTION is

not ‘the hero myth’

not idealism,

not the scape-goat mechanism (with which TDK finishes )
Note the irony of John Robin Blake taking up Bruce
Wayne’s mantel – and so the cycle starts all over again.
Note too, that the new Gotham which emerges in
TDKR , is also based on a lie, and that John Robin
Blake is condemned thereby to continue the cycle of illusion.
Ethics of care:
The moral theory known as “ the ethics of care” implies that there is moral significance in the fundamental elements of relationships and dependencies in
human life. Normatively, care ethics seeks to maintain relationships by contextualizing and promoting the well-being of care-givers and care-receivers in a network of social relations
Virtue ethics:
is a broad term for theories that emphasize the role of character and virtue in moral philosophy rather than either doing one’s duty or acting in order to bring about good consequences. A virtue ethicist is likely to give you this kind of moral advice: “Act as a virtuous person would act in your situation.” Plato identified the
four cardinal virtues with the classes of the city described in The Republic, and with the faculties of man. Plato narrates a discussion of the character of a good city where the following is agreed upon. “Clearly, then, it will be wise, brave,
temperate [literally: healthy-minded], and just.” (427e; see also 435b)

Bane a casualty of (damaged by) The League of Shadows; so is the love of his life.
He works from ruthless honesty, and also from within the framework of the theory of dialectic materialism, and social
Darwinism: the survival of the fittest
THESIS------- ANTITHESIS--------- SYNTHESIS
(history taking its course, on the side of the proletariat: Marxist theory)
And also from a certain of apocalyptic vision i.e. ‘forcing the moment to its crisis’ (TS Eliot Prufrock), actually wanting to see the world burn cf., TDKR particularly focuses on resonances with the
French Revolution and its self-devouring under Robespierre.
Interesting Question: How does Bane’s approach to life, his personal suffering affect how he defines the problem?
Note too: just like with Poncelet in Dead Man Walking we come to discover the true Bane, a protector of a different sort – also one who is capable of love and devotion.
VALUE DUALISM
Most moral systems are dualistic: they define goodness over against badness, and are internally related to the construction of personal and group identities. The dualist is one who states that we all live in an empirical and rationalist world and that morality is nothing more than the adoption of universal and defensible rules of conduct . [also see body-soul dualism]
VALUE MONISM (bird’s eye)
Based on Richardson, 2015 Nietzsche’s Value Monism
When we are no longer concerned with defending or defining ourselves or our goodness over against others, or live in the shadow of death and judgement – then our moral perspectives acquire
a new freedom. Monism draws on that freedom (i.e. no ‘misplaced self-righteousness’ Joker), sees everything as interrelated. Values here are seen more on a continuum than pitted against one another.
This is not to say that there isn’t a place for ‘value dualism’ – just that we need to expose its potential to deceive [self-justification] as well as its limitations (and of course the reverse works the same way – monism too may have its limitations and blind spots.
In the end we consider both perspectives critically and ask the big
question: which aligns better with REALITY and TRUTH. The transcendent moralist/value monist believes that she lives in a world whose mystery transcends us and that morality is the exploration of that mystery. Cf., the very passions which bring people together are the very same that break them apart (e.g. crimes of passion cf.,
Othello): driven by desire and expressed in the context of rivalry - also the very same forces that glue societies together, are those that tear them apart. So any judgement we might make, needs to take account of these realities cf., Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Judgement is grace because we are
The Question here: How to solve/escape the cycle of violence and criminality?
The following list can be extended through class discussion:

Not through the batman/hero/divinisation

Not through the scape-goat mechanism (at least not in the long term)

Not through idealism

Not through brutal realism: cf., Social Darwinism, cf., fascism, marxism

Not through chance which in fact, is not fair

Not through dogmatism be it ‘wanting to see the world burn’: the apocalyptic vision, or the doctrine of dialectic materialism

Not through myth (the lie)

Perhaps through anarchy (the political notion) but
not through chaos (?) I use the example of how effective anarchists were in the factories in prerevolutionary Russia and how Lenin opposed them
It may be solved (apart from the moral response model)
through VALUE MONISM, SCAPE-GOAT MECHANISM, PACIFIC
MIMESIS i.e.in terms of an awareness of how the mechanism of violence works, how complex the problem is – and more, to be sensitive to those blind spots that prevent us from seeing the reality and truth of the problem or issue such as: ressentiment
(resentment), revenge, méconnaissance
(misperception/misunderstanding/, misrecognition/unawareness: the twin’ who fails to see the similarities in the other; rivalry; cf., Nietzsche’s master mind set: which emerges from a journey through 3 levels: the camel, the lion and the child, as opposed to the slave mind set which, mostly unconsciously, constantly seethes in resentment: according to Nietzsche, the whole of his project is to overcome nihilism and resentment – cf., The
Railway Man, and Philomena on forgiveness