Thanos MCU - Philosophical Analysis: The True Utilitarian?

[@PhilosophyVibe]

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[@jayboore3982]

Lt Corp S. I. A

[@jemstar63]

I've got my first philosophy a level paper tomorrow. Thanks for all the videos, you've been a huge help and you are well loved in our class.

[@PhilosophyVibe]

So glad to have been of help, wishing you the best of luck in your philosophy course :)

[@maxineasbury2566]

Thanos was responding to trauma. And after enacting his trauma he realized where he went wrong and felt remorse. So he decides to destroy the stones. So that no one would repeat his mistakes. After so conceding to his punishment. He wasn't acting on utilitarian thoughts but on harassment, he endured as a child on Titan. Then watched as they all died swallowed a large portion of fear and envy which lead to his actions.

[@happyvalleykid6324]

Great video full of sentiments I generally agree with. Another question you didn't raise is simply "Does what happened on Titan actually even apply to the rest of the universe?" Maybe I forgot something from the movies, but I don't recall there being anything that indicates Titan's problem to be one shared by the rest of the universe at large, both presently and into the foreseeable future.

[@pliondaris]

Awesome video, love the films and how you've related this.

[@PhilosophyVibe]

Thank you!

[@brandonwood6799]

The philosophical problem presented in this version of the Infinity War sparked the conversation that finally got my kids turned on to philosophy.

[@kirbygamer8484]

you made a good argument and i agree with you thanos was wrong and he wasnt a true utilitarian

[@SMASH_REVIEWS]

I Have thought a lot about thanos's intentions myself for many months.

[@KrisTheKrisMan]

One of my favourite things about Thanos is that he goes through all that effort to get the infinity stones and wipe out half of the universe but never seems to consider how his actions would damage production on every planet with a global economy similar to that of Earth. It does seem like he would just rather commit genocide than actually formulate a rational approach which implies he had ulterior motives.

[@sheikhumarrkhan4906]

When you look at The Eternals, Thanos delayed the imminent destruction of the universe.

[@Anarchist_syndicalist]

Not even 1 person deserves to die

[@inceldetector6148]

u are the best philosophy channel

[@PhilosophyVibe]

Thank you!!!

[@jackmahoney4534]

Silly me. At first I thought this was a philosophical discussion about Elizabeth Holmes, the crook and con artist behind Theranos, the defunct corporation. Yet I am never disappointed by anything that Philosophy Vibe does. Always great stuff.

[@ritesh.prakash]

Excellent video💯💯👏👏 Superb explanation ⭐

[@PhilosophyVibe]

Thank you!

[@AnonymousC-lm6tc]

Excellent video! Would you also consider doing a philosophical analysis of Heath Ledger’s Joker?

[@PhilosophyVibe]

Great suggestion, definitely something to look into.

[@NeterRafi77]

Am a engine of Chaos

[@shashbrowns]

Hello! Not sure if this is exactly a traditional philosophical topic, but would you consider doing a video on postmodernism arguments for and against?

[@simoneserafini5412]

Great Question I'm confused

[@TrovENT]

Part 2... U mentioned that the culling of 50% is not needed and that ultimately the process would need to be repeated sometimes in the future but I would disagree, and argue that upon culling half the population, specific measures could be put in place to preserve, conserve and augment a planet's resources, to ensure that a current predicament does not re-manifest at a later date.. U mentioned that sterilisation could be introduced to certain number of people to help balance things, but again, one would find themselves with the same predicament as currently fanos faces (who do you select and will they voluntarily agree to it).. either way u look at it, a degree of force and decisiveness is how to solves much a matter (utilitarianism), anything other than that, I would say requires a democratic process which ultimately will fail (in my opinion).

[@NeterRafi77]

The problem is that we assume that death is the end of life. Death is not the end nothing never ends

[@Comboman70]

Great video, as always!

[@PhilosophyVibe]

Thank you :)

[@TrovENT]

They may have been other options fanos or any other person could have explored but guess what until that option is actually voiced, fanos has legitimacy in carrying out his solution bcuz it has some merit to it.. a plan is only a bad one IF a better alternative is presented (I haven't seen the movie) but it doesn't look to me like an better alternative was presented, therefore fanos has legitimacy with his solution... Lastly the onus is not on fanos to come up with a more widely morally accepted strategy, rather the onus is on anyone else who disagrees with fanos's theory... So in that sense I still think fanos's argument stands tall

[@WeirdParanormal]

Can you start uploading videos on the explanation of books by famous philosophers as you guys can explain complex things simply.

[@changchen09]

Never thought Marvel got such philosophical themes behind the movies! 🥲 Good to know but in the end, it's about the middleway & avoiding the two extremes always to our best.. 🌱🧬✌🏻

[@parthshukla545]

You forgot about the '2nd law of thermodynamics'?

[@patrickmoore4278]

This is the problem with the snap, omnipotence, Uber, Mench. There is going to be so many different ways to fix our problems. Does any one entity deserve that kind of power. Or is worthy of that kind of power? At the end of this movie, all of the heroes were fighting, because they couldn’t agree on how to handle even political human situations.

[@tdillins]

He could have made everyone in the universe more intelligent with the stones. Having smarter people will allow for better technology allowing all races to survive off their technology and not have to kill anyone.

[@idkay-ramen]

was cool video but it wouldve been interesting to explore why thanos stoppes acting as a true utilitarian

[@P-R-O-P-A-G-A-N-D-A]

Batman II - Joker also had this game with those two boat. Thank you for this video. I only write which I do not agree with: In the ending you said Thanos could duplicate resource. It is/was impossible as I know. However sterilization would be better choice of course. Also saying to everyone: if u start overpopulating I'll snap my finger!!! But I think they did it right. Because we have to proof that Thanos was wrong, and whe can be better than those poor titans. I hope so...

[@CIMAmotor]

You haven't factored in the amount of resourses used by those who are not eradicated immediately.

[@rayjhonfrancisco]

How about Walter White in Breaking Bad as Nihilism?

[@preciouskhunou8870]

can you please do a video on colonial philosophy

[@brainstormingsharing1309]

👍

[@eudaimonia.filosofia]

Well.. to avoid the "no true scotsman fallacy" we must say Thanos was indeed a true utilitarian. I do think he did the math wrong since his solution does not solve the problem, it just changes the expiration date on the universe, but he was still a utilitarian.

[@NeterRafi77]

Never compromise. Even in the face of Armageddon

[@priyesh3655]

The thanos in end game and infinity war were defferent.

[@masterzero8561]

You should make a video about Lelouch from code geass. He is a true utilitarian

[@KnownasK1]

The Endgame Thanos did not sacrifice his daughter or lose his other “children”, this is why he didn’t care about shredding everything. Infinity War Thanos is different

[@Rand0mPeon]

Philosophy aside, Thanos was straight up wrong in the practical sense. Thanos assumed that resources are something that are finite, but that’s the furthest from the truth. Ressources, or at least the ones necessary for a population to live (like food) are something that people _make._ We don’t just _find_ fields of crops in the wild, we work the soil to make them, and having more people working on food production means having more of it. We’ve had plenty of real life wannabe Thanos in the last century, who believed that Mankind would soon go extinct due to overpopulation if the population wasn’t reduced. Every time they’ve been proven wrong, as the increased population, far from causing our extinction, was accompanied by a _reduction_ of problems such as famine. Mass starvation is at the lowest it has ever been, despite us being at the most numerous ever. But of course, the Marvel movies portrays resources the same way Thanos views them, and shows us he was ‘right’ even if it stands in direct contradiction with reality. Many buy into this portrayal, and it’s frustrating to see people claim that ‘tHaNoS wAs RiGhT’ when they don’t understand the first thing about the subject.

[@colindowden2182]

The people who thought thanos were right are the same people who thinks thanos is wiping half the population because humanity are full of evil individuals, when it has nothing to do with that. Thanos was clearly wrong and could create more resources but then again thanos has a messiah complex that any alternative of stopping world hunger is unfathomable and that's why at least in infinty war he's a great villain.

[@madarauch00]

Please explain pain philosophy

[@NeterRafi77]

Wonder why they call Th-Anus the Mad Titan?????

[@rayjhonfrancisco]

How about Jigsaw in Saw?

[@saulgomez5813]

Wonder if Covid-19 was a similar idea for our older population? just a thought not a statement.

[@jonathancampbell5231]

Comic book Thanos is a deeply philosophical character with very different motivations and beliefs, and he'd be worth a look. He's even more of a psycho, but he's got existentialist and nihilistic reasons for everything he does. Of course, lots of comic book villains do philosophy better than the movies; even Ra's Al Ghul has been doing the "genocide for the greater good" thing since the 70s, and he did it better. I dislike the MCU Thanos because his logic is dumb (overpopulation DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY), and I don't like how the writers dodge the ethical issue they've brought up by implying he's ultimately just a narcissist with PTSD and nobody addresses the flaws in his plans other than characters just being repulsed by his solution, and admittedly I do think the evil and more dangerous comic version is better anyway.

[@eklektikTubb]

Thanos could have done better, if he knew better.

[@melchior2678]

Marvel hasn't made anything worthwhile since the 90s

[@colindowden2182]

Weren't the 90s the dark age?

[@Aj-yu6ec]

Hilarious