One of the most notable features of the Corps is the way members of different species get along and work together, with no more than a shared loyalty to the Corps to bind them. This loyalty to something that transcends their own backgrounds allows them to express concern for citizens of other worlds. Even with this broadened moral community, however, they can still run into conflict with each other and with the Guardians, given their very different worldviews and philosophies.  It's not surprising that part of the drama of the comics involves arguments about what values in particular the Corps ought to be promoting or protecting.

For instance, Sinestro (played by Mark Strong in the movie) believes that maintaining order on his home planet of Korugar is his most important goal as a Green Lantern. Hal Jordan, on the other hand, believes that Sinestro's oppressive method of imposing order comes at too high a cost in terms of freedom and well-being. Despite Hal's respect for Sinestro's responsibility and sense of duty, they continually run into conflict (even before they become sworn enemies).

This conflict fits with Jonathan Haidt's research in moral psychology. Haidt suggests that there are five different foundations of morality that have developed over the course of our evolutionary history, which he calls harm/care, fairness/reciprocity, ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity. Haidt finds that people who identify as liberals tend to base their moral reasoning on the first two foundations, whereas people who identify as conservatives tend to use the last two. Consequently, the two sides have difficulty understanding each other; it's not just that they disagree on moral issues, but that they have significantly different ways of conceiving morality itself.

We can also see this play out in the debates between different forms of moral theory. Each of them is assumed as an obvious or common sense standpoint by its practitioners and advocates, but they are deeply at odds with each other. For utilitarians, it seems completely obvious that decisions and policies ought to be formed in a way that will promote the greatest good of the greatest number. For deontologists, who are focused on duty and universal principles, it seems just as obvious that we owe each and every person a respect that cannot be overridden. And for care ethicists, who focus on context and the relationships between people, the impersonal calculations of utilitarians and deontologists can seem excessively cold and unfeeling. These debates show that while our own moral principles seem obvious to us, they're not obvious to everyone.

In exploring how the members of the Green Lantern Corps manage to cooperate in the fight for justice while disagreeing about what, exactly, justice is, we can see the many different foundations of morality at play in a way that is removed from our day-to-day worries. By watching members of the Corps struggle with different views of right and wrong, we can gain insight into the concerns of people whose moral foundations differ from our own. This can only help in promoting civility within political and moral discussions, even for those of us without incredible power rings at our disposal.

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Jane and I edited Green Lantern and Philosophy: No Evil Shall Escape this Book (Wiley, 2011).

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You can follow me on Twitter and also at the following blogs: Economics and Ethics, The Comics Professor, and The Literary Table.