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Would our world be a better place if some of us were benders? Can Katara repair the world through care? Is Toph a disability pride icon? What does it mean for Zuko to be bad at being good? Can we tell whether uncle Iroh is a fool or a sage? The world is out of sorts. The four nations, Water, Earth, Fire, and Air, are imbalanced because of the unrelenting conquest of the Fire Nation. The only one who can restore balance to the world is the Avatar. On the face of it, Avatar: The Last Airbender is 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.

Would our world be a better place if some of us were benders?Can Katara repair the world through care?Is Toph a disability pride icon?What does it mean for Zuko to be bad at being good?Can we tell whether uncle Iroh is a fool or a sage?The world is out of sorts. The four nations, Water, Earth, Fire, and Air, are imbalanced because of the unrelenting conquest of the Fire Nation. The only one who can restore balance to the world is the Avatar. On the face of it, Avatar: The Last Airbender is 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.

Contributors: Drawing Wisdom from Many Different Places viiiPreface xviAaron EhaszIntroduction: "We are all one people, but we live as if divided" 1Helen De Cruz and Johan De SmedtPart I: The Universe of Avatar: The Last Airbender 51 Native Philosophies and Relationality in Avatar: The Last Airbender: It's (Lion) Turtles All the Way Down 7Miranda Belarde-Lewis(Zuni/Tlingit) and Clementine Bordeaux(Sicangu Oglala Lakota)2 Getting Elemental: How Many Elements Are There in Avatar: The Last Airbender? 16Sofia Ortiz-Hinojosa3 The Personalities of Martial Arts in Avatar: The Last Airbender 25Zachary Isrow4 The End of the World: Nationhood and Abolition in Avatar: The Last Airbender 34Nicholas Whittaker5 The Bending World, a Bent World: Supernatural Power and Its Political Implications 43Yao LinPart II: Water 536 Avatar: The Last Airbender and Anishinaabe Philosophy 55Brad Cloud7 "Lemur!" - "Dinner!": Human-Animal Relations in Avatar: The Last Airbender 63Daniel Wawrzyniak8 On the Moral Neutrality of Bloodbending 71Johnathan Flowers9 On the Ethics of Bloodbending: Why Is It So Wrong and Can It Ever Be Good? 79Mike Gregory10 Mystical Rationality 88Isaac Wilhelm11 "I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me": Repairing the World Through Care 98Nicole Fice12 Spirits, Visions, and Dreams: Native American Epistemology and the Aang Gaang 105Justin Skirry and Samuel SkirryPart III: Earth 11513 Time Is an Illusion: Time and Space in the Swamp 117Natalia Strok14 There Is No Truth in Ba Sing Se: Bald-faced Lies and the Nature of Lying 124Nathan Kellen15 The Rocky Terrain of Disability Gain in Avatar: The Last Airbender: Is Toph a Supercrip Stereotype or a Disability Pride Icon? 133Joseph A. Stramondo16 The Earth King, Ignorance, and Responsibility 143Saba Fatima17 The Middle Way and the Many Faces of Earth 150Thomas ArnoldPart IV: Fire 15918 The Battle Within: Confucianism and Legalism in the Nation, the Family, and the Soul 161Kody W. Cooper19 Not Giving Up on Zuko: Relational Identity and the Stories We Tell 170Barrett Emerick and Audrey Yap20 Uncle Iroh, From Fool to Sage - Or Sage All Along? 178Eric Schwitzgebel and David Schwitzgebel21 Being Bad at Being Good: Zuko's Transformation and Residual Practical Identities 188Justin F. White22 Compassion and Moral Responsibility in Avatar: The Last Airbender: "I was never angry; I was afraid that you had lost your way" 197Robert H. WallacePart V: Air 20723 The Fire Nation and the United States: Genocide as the Foundation for Empire Building 209Kerri J. Malloy24 Anarchist Airbenders: On Anarchist Philosophy in Avatar: The Last Airbender 216Savriël Dillingh25 A Buddhist Perspective on Energy Bending, Strength, and the Power of Aang's Spirit 225Nicholaos Jones and Holly Jones26 Ahimsa and Aang's Dilemma: "Everyone . . . [has] to be treated like they're worth giving a chance" 235James William Lincoln27 The Avatar Meets the Karmapa: Interconnections, Friendship, and Moral Training 242Brett PattersonIndex 251