Avatar - The Last Airbender and Philosophy - Wisdom from Aang to Zuko

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a story about a lone superhero, but saving the world is a team effort. The show brings to the fore Eastern, Western, and Indigenous philosophies, and features contributions by experts on Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, and Indigenous schools of thought. It also draws on less common traditions such as black abolitionism, anarchism, and the philosophy of martial arts. ATLA and Philosophy helps readers to deeply engage with today's burning questions, such as how to deal with ecological destruction, the aftermath of colonialism and genocide, and wealth inequality.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 05 December 2022
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc

The world is in disarray. The four nations, Water, Earth, Fire, and Air, are imbalanced due to the relentless conquest of the Fire Nation. The only one who can restore balance to the world is the Avatar. At first glance, Avatar: The Last Airbender appears to be a story about a lone superhero. However, saving the world is a team effort, embodied in Team Avatar, aka the Gaang. Aang needs help from his friends and tutors, even from non-human animals. Through the teachings of Guru Pathik and Huu, he comes to realize that though the world and its nations seem separate, we are all one people. We all have the same roots and we are all branches of the same tree.

Avatar: The Last Airbender and Philosophy brings to the fore the Eastern, Western, and Indigenous philosophies that are implicit in the show. Following Uncle Iroh's advice that it is important to draw wisdom from many traditions, this volume features contributions by experts on Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, and Indigenous schools of thought, next to focusing on Western classical authors such as Plotinus, Kant, and Merleau-Ponty. The volume is also unique in drawing on less common traditions such as black abolitionism, anarchism, and the philosophy of martial arts.

Intertwining experience and reflection, ATLA and Philosophy helps readers to deeply engage with today's burning questions, such as how to deal with ecological destruction, the aftermath of colonialism and genocide, and wealth inequality, using the tools from a wide range of philosophical traditions.

Weight: 428g
Dimension: 226 x 156 x 16 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781119809807