Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: the wonder of Heroes -- Heroic obligations. Above the social contract? How superheroes break society / Robert Sharp -- Heroes, obligations, and the ethics of saving the world / J.K. Miles -- Corporate capers : the moral dimensions of working for the company / Christopher Robichaud -- With great creativity comes great imitation : problems of plagiarism and knowledge / Jason Southworth -- Supermen, samurai, and invisible men. Time and the meaning of life in Heroes and Nietzsche / Tyler Shores -- Hiro Nakamura, Bushido, and hero archetypes / Erik Daniel Baldwin -- Plato on Gyges' ring of invisibility : the power of Heroes and the value of virtue / Don Adams -- Metaphysics, regular physics, and heroic time travel. The foreknowledge of a painter, the fate of a Hiro / David Kyle Johnson -- Time to be a hero : branching time and changing the future / Morgan Luck -- Heroes and the ethics of time travel : does the present matter? / David Faraci -- The science of Heroes : flying men, immortal samurai, and destroying the space-time continuum / Andrew Zimmerman Jones -- Pseudoscience, scientific revolutions, and Dr. Chandra Suresh / David Kyle Johnson and Andrew Zimmerman Jones -- The minds of Heroes. Peter Petrelli, the Haitian, and the philosophical implications of memory loss / Peter Kirwan -- Understanding other minds : philosophical foundations of Heroes' mind-reading powers / Fabio Paglieri -- Peter Petrelli : the power of empathy / Andrew Terjesen -- Villains, family, and lying. Are the heroes really good? / Peter S. Fosl -- Heroes and family obligations / Ruth Tallman and Jason Southworth -- Concealment and lying : is that any way for a hero to act? / Michael R. Berry.