Spider-Man and Philosophy: The Web of Inquiry -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part One: The Spectacular Life of Spider-Man? -- 1: Does Peter Parker Have a Good Life? -- Paul Kurtz-A Life of Pleasure and Care for Others -- Ayn Rand-Life and Integrity -- Epictetus-Self-Control, Duty, and Knowledge of the World -- Viktor Frankl-Meaning and Sacrifice -- Thomas Aquinas-God and Virtue -- What Next? -- Notes -- 2: What Price Atonement? Peter Parker and the Infinite Debt -- Death and Taxes -- Ethics and the Infinite -- Every Other Is Wholly Other -- Remaining in Debt -- Notes -- 3: "My Name is Peter Parker": Unmasking the Right and the Good -- To Unmask or Not to Unmask -- The Irresistible Iron Man -- But on the Other Hand . . . -- The Tangled Web That Is Consequentialism -- Oops! -- Remember the Kingpin? -- Give Up? Never! -- Notes -- Part Two: Responsibility-Man -- 4: "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility": Spider-Man, Christian Ethics, and the Problem of Evil -- "I Have Called You Friends": The Christian Answer to Why People Were Created -- "Can't You Respect Me Enough to Let Me Make My Own Decisions?": The Foundations of Christian Ethics -- "We Always Have a Choice": The Solution to the Problem of Evil -- Dealing with Venom: How to Perfect or Pervert Justice -- "It's the Choices That Make Us Who We Are:" The Conclusion to the Matter -- Notes -- 5: Does Great Power Bring Great Responsibility? Spider-Man and the Good Samaritan -- Responsibility Does as Responsibility Is -- Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Does Whatever a Samaritan Can -- Your Friendly Neighborhood Samaritan -- The Do's and Don'ts of Duties -- Unmasking the Bad Samaritan -- Spider-Man: Hero or Menace? -- How Great Is That? -- Notes -- 6: With Great Power Comes Great Culpability: How Blameworthy Is Spider-Man for Uncle Ben's Death? -- Peter Parker's Good and Bad Luck.

The Web of Moral Luck -- The Two Peter Parkers -- The Problem with Moral Luck -- Peter Parker: Agent of Regret -- Aunt May's Dark Secret -- Power and Responsibility -- Notes -- Part Three: Spider-Sense and the Self -- 7: Why Is My Spider-Sense Tingling? -- Getting the Sense of Things, Directly -- What Danger Looks Like -- The Relative Nature of Danger -- Is It Really Dangerous? -- When the Spider-Sense Fails -- Spider-Sense, Spider-Judgment, or Both? -- Did We Learn Anything? -- Notes -- 8: Red or Black: Perception, Identity, and Self -- A Hero Transformed -- Selves Transformed -- The Transforming Self -- Notes -- 9: With Great Power: Heroism, Villainy, and Bodily Transformation -- Changing the World -- Transformation, Virtue, and Vice -- Great Responsibility -- A Story about a Girl -- Notes -- Part Four: Arachnids "R" Us: Technology and the Human, all too Human -- 10: Transhumanism: Or, Is It Right to Make a Spider-Man? -- Enhancement Anxieties -- Like a God among Men -- A Lucky Guy -- A Strange Liberation Movement -- Equality and Biology -- Enhancing People and Creating Monsters -- Creating MJ's Smile -- Notes -- 11: Maximum Clonage: What the Clone Saga Can Teach Us about Human Cloning -- Gwen Stacy Is Alive . . . and, Well . . . ?! -- The Shattering Secret of Cloning -- The Game of Life-What the Saga Gets Wrong (and Right) about Cloning -- The Worth of a Clone -- Game's End -- Notes -- Part Five: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man -- 12: Justice versus Romantic Love: Can Spider-Man Champion Justice and Be with Mary Jane at the Same Time? -- The Primacy of Justice -- The Primacy of the Romantic -- Romantic Justice or Just Romantic -- 13: Love, Friendship, and Being Spider-Man -- A Fine Fellow -- Sacrificial Love -- MJ Hearts Spider-Man -- Some Friend You Are! You Stole My Girl! Killed My Father! -- Sacrificing Superheroes -- Notes.

14: Spidey's Tangled Web of Obligations: Fighting Friends and Dependents Gone Bad -- Spinning a Web of Deceit -- The Alien Symbiote-Not Your Typical Pile of Dirty Laundry -- Here Come the Bad Guys! -- Fighting Friends Gone Bad -- Lending a Hand-Or Some Webbing -- Notes -- Part Six: The Amazing Speaking Spider: Jokes, Stories, and the Choices We Make -- 15: The Quipslinger: The Morality of Spider-Man's Jokes -- What's So Funny, Webhead? -- Joke's on You, Bad Guy! -- Professor Spidey and the Bad Guys -- Spidey Corrects Heroes -- The Punch Line -- Notes -- 16: The Sound and the Fury behind "One More Day" -- Do We Lack Character? -- Enough about Normal People-What about Superheroes? -- So, Who's Responsible for This Outrage? -- Secret Interpretation -- What If You Had One More Day? -- Notes -- 17: Spider-Man and the Importance of Getting Your Story Straight -- Do We Always Have a Choice? -- What Storytelling Is All About -- Not Every Action That Glitters Is Virtuous -- The Virtue of Spider-Man's Story -- Notes -- Contributors -- Index.