The Superman/Kent hypothesis

On the epistemological limit between human and superhuman

Authors

Keywords:

Epistemology, Superman, Nostalgia, Ubermensch, Cognition

Abstract

Everybody knows that Superman is Clark Kent. Nobody knows that Superman is Clark Kent.

Located between these two absolute statements is the epistemological limit that separates the superhero fictitious universe from our universe of causal reality. The superheroic double identity is a secret shared by the superhero and the reader of the comic or the viewer of the movie, and quite often the superhero winks at the outside world, thus breaking the 4th wall and establishing this collusive relationship. However, in our hypothesis, we are interested in Superman not as a fictitious archetype, but rather as a fictitious metaphor. We are not interested in his double identity as the matrix of superheroic attributes and narratives, but rather as the differential limit between superhuman and human within the fictional universe. Because, the reader or the viewer may share the secret identity with Superman and also with Spiderman or Batman or any other superhuman, but the secret equivalence of Superman and Clark Kent contains another hidden antithesis.

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References

Action comics #1, june 1938.
Eco, umberto and chilton, natalie, the myth of superman. Diacritics, vol.2, no. 1, the john hopkins university press, spring, 1972.
Feiffer, jules. The great comic book heroes. New york: the dial press, 1965.
Nietzsche, friedrich. Thus spoke zarathustra [1883], trans. Walter kaufmann in the portable nietzsche. Ed. W. Kaufmann, new york: the viking press, 1954.
Rousseau, jean-jacques. Emile or on education, [1762], trans. Allan bloom new york:basic books, 1979.
Millar, mark. Red son. New york: titan books, dc comics, 2004.
Plato, republic.
The Superman/Kent hypothesis: On the epistemological limit between human and superhuman

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Published

24-03-2015

How to Cite

Schismenos, A. (2015). The Superman/Kent hypothesis: On the epistemological limit between human and superhuman. SOCRATES, 3(1), 57–65. Retrieved from https://www.socratesjournal.com/index.php/SOCRATES/article/view/109

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2015): Issue - March

Section

Philosophy

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Author(s) will retain all the right except commercial and re-publishing rights. In the case of re-publishing, they will have to obtain written permission from the journal. Additional licensing agreements (Creative Commons licenses) grants rights to readers to copy, distribute, display and perform the work as long as you give the original author(s) credit, they can not use the works for commercial purposes and are not allowed to alter, transform, or build upon the work. For any reuse or distribution, readers and users must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holders. Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the authors’ rights. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Research Papers published in SOCRATES are licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)