From his first comic-book appearance in 1939 through his many incarnations on the big screen, the archetypal superhero known as The Batman has never been far from the American consciousness. The character shaped the way we read comics and graphic novels, view motion pictures, and analyze the motifs of the Hero, the Anti-Hero and the Villain. He has also captured the scholarly imagination, telling us much about our society and ourselves. These essays examine how Batman is both the canvas on which our cultural identity is painted, and the Eternal Other that informs our own journeys of understanding. Questions relating to a wide range of disciplines--philosophy, literature, psychology, pop culture, and more--are thoroughly and entertainingly explored, in a manner that will appeal both to scholars and to fans of the Caped Crusader alike.

While it is certainly the case that the work of Karl Marx has a revered place in the realm of social philosophy, political science, and literary criticism, there is a place in which Marxism seems to have been forgotten. This place is the study of popular culture, where Marxism provides a lens through which many seemingly disparate films are brought together through philosophical exploration of theme, social and political hierarchies, and questions of power. Essentially, this text seeks to bring to popular culture studies the same sort of scholarly weight that attends the work of Aristotle or Plato or Derrida and, at the same time, to present that scholarship in a readable style that allows both laypeople and scholars to read and enjoy. Often popular culture studies is not taken seriously because the work in discussion is seen as an example of some other great work - for example, one might see a philosopher use an episode of The Simpsons to explain a concept related to Kant's Categorical Imperative. Notice, it is Kant that is under discussion there, not really The Simpsons. This robs the popular work of its own voice. Thus, this text seeks to engage Marxist critical theory from a variety of scholarly angles emphasising the interplay of visual text and critical interpretation. The premium is placed in two areas - critical analysis and readability.

Footnotes to Plato is a guide for beginning students of philosophy as they begin to systematically reflect upon philosophical matters like the nature of the good, living the good life, and exploring the nature of the cosmos. Philosophy is best learned by doing; furthermore, the doing of philosophy is best done in conversation. Those conversations need to be with the great philosophers of the past, with contemporary thinkers, and with peers. Footnotes uses primary texts, commentaries, and guided readings to help students to enter into conversation with contemporary scholarship, having regard for great thinkers and philosophical topics - freedom and determinism, causation, God, human nature, personal identity, ethics, etc. A layered approach to fostering conversations helps students to engage not only with the text, but also with themselves and with one another as they develop the ability to think critically and analytically.