Republic of the Philippines

Bulacan State University

College of Education
City of Malolos
Tel. No. (044) 919-7800 to 99 Local 104

Name: LIM II, Patricia Jane J. Course/Year and Section: BPED – SPE 3A

Midterm Essay: Moon Knight and Moral Philosophy

1. Is Harrow's belief in divine retribution-- in Ammit's justice-- grounded on sound
morality? Apply Socrates' Euthyphro problem in your answer.

In Marvel’s series Moon Knight, Arthur Harrow leads a cult with several members
that worship Ammit, an Egyptian goddess, who, in Harrow's words, “[She] tears evil up from
the root, casting her judgment before any evil’s done". She judged the living for the
wrongdoings they have YET to commit. Based on his statement, I firmly believed that his
belief is not grounded on sound morality. Morality is the standard that is deemed to be right
and acceptable to society. The cult of Ammit can be considered a society, but it doesn't take
the fact that outside of that cult is a much much bigger society that doesn't approve of their
beliefs, or maybe most of them didn't even know they exist. Furthermore, we refer morality
to as concepts such as justice, fairness, rights, as well as the laws that govern how people
should treat others (Decety & Cowell, 2016). In Ammit's justice, there's no fairness, there are
no rights because people have already been judged before they can even commit a "crime".
To further explain, let's use Euthyphro's problem. Euthyphro's problem is: is an action
right because it is commanded by the gods (first horn), or do the gods command it because it
is right (second horn), which is asked by Socrates. Harrow's belief lies on the first horn; he's a
Divine Command theorist. He believes that bestowing retribution to the people who have yet
to commit wrongdoings is the right thing to do because Ammit said so and because according
to him, in his words, "You don't need to doubt her judgment". According to Halfon (2004),
religious commitments are often at the root of a person's moral principles. In this case,
Harrow's morality lies with god; he abandoned his concept of right and wrong because he is
blinded by faith. Now, let's go back to Harrow's belief which I believed to be wrong. I get the
point of Harrow but I still believe that it's not right. In mortal rules, we have a maxim that
says, "Innocent until proven guilty". So if Ammit punished a person even before he
committed wrongdoings, how would he defend himself as an innocent? Know that Ammit
can see past, present, and future, but we all know that the future is unforeseeable; the future is
ever-changing depending on the actions we did and we do. Ammit's justice defeats the
concept of "repentance". They are taking the liberty of a person to choose, to right their
wrongs. In the first paragraph, I said that maybe people, aside from the cult, didn't even know
they exist so they don't know that they are committing wrongdoings that will earn them
death. That said, you cannot expect them to follow a belief that they're not even aware of.
 2. Harrow's morality lies in his faith in Ammit's justice; that the goddess can prevent
crimes, harms, and pains before people can even do them. A world without harm,
without crimes, and without pain is essentially a world of pleasure and happiness. Can
it be said therefore that Harrow employs a utilitarian morality and the greatest
happiness principle? Why? If not, whose happiness is he prioritizing? Explain your
answer.

If we focus on the neighborhood that Harrow is in, yes, he employs a utilitarian

morality. In the article Morality of New World Encyclopedia (2018), it was mentioned that
John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham defined morality as conduct that follows the principle
of utility, which is the foundation of morals. This principle says that an action is only right if
it promotes and produces the greatest overall happiness of well-being. At the beginning of the
clip, Harrow described that before, the neighborhood has the highest crime rate among the
other cities. But now, the place is safe to the point that they do not even lock their doors at
night, showing how peaceful it is compared to then. The people seemed content, happy.
Judging by this outcome, it can arguably be said that Ammit's justice is morally right because
it brings the neighborhood the greatest happiness and reduced suffering. Also, I believe that
Harrow is a hedonistic and sadist; he is a paradox himself. He prioritizes the happiness of the
cult, the people who believed in Ammit, and at the same time takes pleasure in hearing the
screams of pain of quote-unquote, “cruel masses”. And by eradicating forces of yet evil, he
described the phenomenon as "Heaven on Earth". This argument of Harrow is can be called a
hedonistic moral theory. Driver (2014) said that Bentham’s hedonism was that we must aim
to maximize our pleasure and happiness while avoiding pain. She also added that if someone
violates one’s liberty or autonomy and deemed it wrong, they are also wrong for deeming it
wrong because for Bentham, liberty and autonomy are desirable but only in terms of utility or
instrumental value, not intrinsic value. Harrow knows this too well. For him, the intent is
irrelevant because the result will “produce the greatest good for the greatest number”.
 References

Decety, J. & Cowell, J. (2016). Our Brains are Wired for Morality: Evolution, Development,
and Neuroscience.
Retrieved from https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2016.00003.
Driver, J. (2014). The History of Utilitarianism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(Winter 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.),
Retrieved from
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/utilitarianism-history/.
Halfon, M. (2004). Atheism: A Moral Alternative.
Retrieved from https://bit.ly/3L4WL5z
New World Encyclopedia. (2018). Morality.
Retrieved from
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Morality&oldid=1015426.