“It appears that Batman’s nonlethal attitude to The Joker is partially responsible for the continual death and suffering of many innocents. This is so because we all know that Arkham Asylum – the revolving door of Gotham’s criminals – can’t hold The Joker. And, as I said, debilitating him doesn’t work and there is no cure for his chaos and insanity.”
Once Harvey Dent said:
“It’s not about what I want. It’s about what’s fair!”
Let’s think through it and tell me, Is not killing Joker fair? How we decide fair? And what about the lives Batman did not save by not killing him? Or Killing will always be morally bad, if it brings good in totality, then also it cannot be proved as a righteous deed?
We all know who he is. He is the Dark Knight, he’s the hero Gotham deserves, a silent guardian and watchful protector. Whether he’s painted on the page or portrayed on the screen, the character has always upheld a steely moral code defined by one ultimate rule: he will not take a life.
In one of the comics, the Joker brutally murdered Robin. At the end of the film, Batman himself explains that even with that on the Joker’s track record – with the graveyards he has personally filled and the chaos he exclusively causes – Batman refuses to end the murderer’s life because it would be too easy and make Batman a murderer himself, and there would be no coming back from that. The act of killing is too wrong to recover from, and Batman simply will not go there in order to obtain justice. Instead, he locks Joker back up in Arkham Asylum, from which he’ll inevitably escape wreaking havoc again in another story. Is Batman culpable for these future deaths, or is he just following his own moral code, disregarding the consequences?
There has been always a philosophical debate about the decision Batman has made but in my view, Batman comes very close to Kant but still doesn’t follow Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative.
What does Kant says?
Kant calls his fundamental moral principle the Categorical Imperative.
Here are two formulation of Kant’s Categorical Imperative:
1: Always treat persons (including yourself) and ends in themselves, never merely as a means to your own ends.
2: Act only on that maxim that you can consistently will to be a universal law.
The first one just tells us about an individual’s respect but the second point tells us to act only on “maxims” that are universalizable. A maxim here is to be understood as a generalized motivation or intention for acting in a certain way under a certain set of circumstances.
A maxim is universalizable if we can will that everyone act in accordance with the maxim. To say that a maxim is universalizable is to say that one can consistently will that everyone act in accordance with that maxim.
So, that means, if Batman kills Joker then any killing can be justified (as per maxim rule) for the moral or collective good.
However, that doesn’t mean that Batman is Kantian. Batman is not following Kant’s Categorical Imperative: if he is not willing for everyone to be a vigilante, he should not be one either.
Also, Kant says every action should be performed for duty and must have good intention. That good intention and duty may keep Batman from killing Joker but isn’t the duty of Batman to save Gotham city from chaos.
Yes, we cannot explain Batman’s ethics only by one philosopher but it is that code and the good it demands from him that separates Batman from Joker.
It’s also part of what makes him relatable, because most of us are morally conflicted in the same way. We all want to do what’s good and we also want to do what’s right, but we don’t always have a clear idea what either of those means, much less how to settle conflicts between them. By looking at Batman’s moral inconsistency, then, we might get a better picture of our own, and see how we might work on improving it.
What do you think, should Batman kill Joker?
Ha.. Ha.. Ha.. Ha.. Ha.. Ha….. Ha…… Ha….
Reference:
https://justiceharvard.org/
https://comicsalliance.com/batman-kill-joker-philosophy/
https://www.profmdwhite.com/batman-and-ethics.html
https://bycommonconsent.com/2009/07/06/the-ethics-of-batman-the-dark-knight/
https://geardiary.com/2012/03/03/batman-the-joker-and-moral-philosophy-perfect-together/