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A Philosophical Framework for Violence

It is not enough to abhor and condemn violence. Nothing will end the violence of the world. The question for us is, what are we going to do about it? There is no simple answer to that question.

In a civil society, we expect the police to deal with most matters of violence. Yet how would we expect police to deal with vampires? As Buffy says, "They couldn't handle it... They'd only come with guns." Or as Principal Snyder puts it less tactfully, "In case you haven't noticed, the police of Sunnydale are deeply stupid." In Angel, the policewoman Kate Lockley loses stature within her department, and finally loses her job, as she becomes obsessed with vampires.

There is no religious framework in the Buffyverse for answering this question. Although Sunnydale has a "surprising" number of churches, they are rarely involved in any way in the series, except as abandoned or ruined buildings. Even after Buffy herself has been to paradise, she says that there is "nothing solid" on whether God exists.

The closest we have to gods in the Buffyverse are "The Powers That Be" who seem to be as self-absorbed and unconcerned with their impact on human life as the Greek pantheon. The few direct contacts that we have with "TPTB" include D'Hoffryn, master of vengeance demons; Jasmine, who brings world peace at the cost of eating a dozen of her subjects every day; the Ra-tet, a mystical order associated with the sun god Ra, and apparently with connections to the Senior Partners of the evil law firm Wolfram and Hart; and the Oracles, who demand precious gifts in return for preciously little information. Clearly, there is no moral guidance to be found here.

On the other hand, Joss Whedon and the writers of Buffy and Angel seem to be extraordinarily well versed in philosophy. As one might expect from the complexity of the world they create, no single philosophy dominates, and ideas are drawn from everywhere.

There are several aspects of Buffy and Angel which focus on philosophical and spiritual issues, but two key areas are the relationship between good and evil, and on the nature of redemption.

Eudaimonism, as described by Plato and others, is the moral theory that people will do what they think will make them happy, and that the morally good life is, in the long run, the life that will make people the happiest.1 Buffy shows that this is her foundation, time and again, as she finds that she cannot set aside her calling as the Slayer. Good and evil are not abstract concepts in Buffy's life; the forces of evil always seem to be drawn to attacking Buffy through her friends and family. Buffy finds that Slaying is her obligation to protect those who cannot protect themselves.

The other Slayers in the Buffyverse, Kendra and Faith, each provide a contrasting perspective. Kendra is Buffy without the emotional connections to friends and family. Faith is Buffy without the moral compass. Even more, Faith is Buffy's dark side, the person she might have become in other circumstances. Faith slays for the pleasure of slaying, and when she has the opportunity to turn to evil, she does so without hesitation.

In the episode "Who Are You?", the writers of Buffy play out a scenario from Plato's Republic, in which Plato poses the question of who is happier, the moral man who is falsely accused, or the unjust person who is believed to be just. Faith, who has always been jealous of the attention that Buffy receives, gets to live in Buffy's life. To her horror, she discovers that Buffy's life really is better and happier. When faced with her own life again, Faith is repulsed by who she is and what she has become.

Buffy also fills the role of Kant's "rational agent" in multiple ways, although there are some issues here as well.2 Buffy is able to "freely choose" her actions, although she had no choice in being chosen as the Slayer. Her actions fit within Kant's moral realm, because she can and does expect others to follow her own rules. (And in "Chosen," she provides others with the ability to follow her path more fully.) She treats her work as the Slayer, including the defense of innocents as well as the slaying of vampires, as an end in itself, not as a means to another end. By Kant's standards, Buffy is a virtuous Slayer.

At this point, however, the hard questions of violence and Slaying need to be addressed. The key factor is that vampires and demons are not, in most cases, either "rational agents" or virtuous in any sense. In an organized society, police are usually expected to deal with violent or hostile groups and individuals. But society, even in Sunnydale, chooses not to recognize demons, and the role of the Slayer was created to fill the need of containing the population of vampires and demons. (See especially the episodes "Restless," "Intervention," and "Get It Done.") As further evidence of Buffy's moral nature, Buffy chooses not to slay (or allow to be slain) any vampires or demons which are not a threat to human beings.

One might question whether these analyses of the morality and virtue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer have any real relationship to the writing and production of the show. The most effective answer is to look at the flip side of the question, whether Buffy also deals with philosophies which deny a rational standard of right and wrong. The place to start would be with Nietzsche.3

Nietzsche starts with a fundamental denial, asserting that "right" and "wrong" are ideas used by the weak to enslave the strong. Similarly, Nietzsche rejects any rational basis for morality; instead, he notes that "good" is derived from "noble," and exalts the unfettered power of nobility of old. With Nietzsche, there is only the power to act. The embodiment of Nietzsche's ideal is "a powerful physicality, a flourishing, abundant, even overflowing health, together with that which serves to preserve it: war, adventure, hunting, dancing, war games, and in general all that involves vigorous, free, joyful activity." The thing that is missing in Nietzsche is any sense of constraint, and this is deliberate. Nor is there any concern with consequences.

The rogue slayer Faith, and Richard Wilkins, the Mayor of Sunnydale, are characters who live out Nietzsche's principles. As Karl Schudt notes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer attacks Nietzsche in the one way left open, by using drama to ask the simple question, "does this work?" By the end of season three, the Mayor is dead, and Faith is in a coma. Both of them are brought down for exactly the same reason that European nobility no longer has the divine right to rule as they choose: society cannot function when powerful but amoral individuals act without constraint. Further, it is not the "weak" who bring Faith and Mayor Wilkins down, as Nietzsche suggests; instead, it is equally powerful actors who understand that the common good requires constraints on all of us. The core of that constraint is the morality that Nietzsche rejects.

It is possible that Nietzsche's primary focus was only on the individual; we know that Nietzsche himself did not live the life that he endorsed. However, in this, too, Nietzsche is open to challenge through the simple device of drama and asking the question, "does this work?" When Faith awakens from her coma, she has the chance to steal Buffy's life and live it herself (see "This Year's Girl" and "Who Are You?"). Instead of exalting in her victory, though, she discovers that Buffy's life was richer than her own, for exactly the reasons that Faith had rejected: connections to other people. Faith's victory quickly dissolves into self-hatred.

Nietzsche has been called the first existentialist philosopher. How does the Buffyverse deal with existentialism and its successors? The clearest example is from the Angel episode "Epiphany." Angel has been fighting evil aggressively, as if a simple body count will achieve his redemption. In the process, he has put his soul, and the lives of his friends, at great risk. He finally realizes this, and realizes that he his course is not only self-destructive, but counter to the goals he seeks to achieve. Angel has this conversation with Kate Lockley, after they have fought for most of a season, and Angel has saved her life after she attempted suicide:

Beyond this conjunction of existentialism with redemption, it is clear that the creative staff of Buffy and Angel have a deep understanding of philosophy and morality. Their understanding of the pitfalls of modern philosophy is clear when you see episodes such as "Normal Again" or the Angel episode "Orpheus," when they employ the techniques of postmodernism to destroy any boundaries between story and meta-story, between text and subtext. The DVD commentaries of these episodes make it explicitly clear that this is a conscious choice. And yet, Buffy never gives in to the moral relativism that flows from modern philosophy. Evil exists in the world. All choices are not equally valid. One must take a stand and fight to defend the things one values.

In that sense, we return to Kant. Individuals are free to act as they choose, but they must respect the right of others to choose as well. Society must deal with those individuals who interfere with the rights of others. Those who choose not to respect the rights of others, or who are unable to respect the rights of others, risk losing their own right to act, or even losing their lives. In this sense, the choices facing Buffy are not so different from the choices that we all face in the world at large today.

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This course was developed for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh. Copyright © 2003-2005 by Diane Wilson. All rights reserved.