Philosophy and resident evil

How Plato's views on philosophy are depicted in the film

 Introduction
 In the following presentation I will discuss the ideas of
major philosophers that can be found in the game
resident evil:
 Plato's crown of ethics
 Plato's hierarchal view of society
 Plato's views that experience, history and wisdom can
inform running of an ideal society.
 Confucius view that of achieving ethical harmony
through skilled judgment rather than a knowledge of
rules.
 Introduction
 Kants idea that there are inherently good and moral ideas
which we have a duty to live by.
 Kants view that peace can only be achieved through
universal democracy and cooperation.
 Machiavelis view that ambition, competition and war are
inevitable parts of human nature.
 Nietches belief that individual should resist social norms in
order to live according to a greater set of virtues
 Aristotle's view that understanding and knowledge are
built from the study of things that happen in the world
 Michael Foucault belief that oppressed humans are entitled
to rights and have a duty to rise up against the abuse of
power to protect this rights
How the crown of ethics is brought out in
the game

This idea is captured by Plato's words, ‘Human behavior flows from 3

main sources desire, emotion or knowledge.’
 The founding of umbrella pharmaceuticals was inherently evil as its
main aim was to create bio-weapons.
 The founders of umbrella corporation are evil men as they discovered
the T virus and kept it from the authorities in order to profit fro it.
 The abduction of Jessica and her child was the wrong thing to do even
though it was for medical research.
 Marcus attempts to overthrow Spencer was a good act as he was going
to use his research for evil. {1}
How crown of ethics is brought out in
the book

 Dr. Marcus scientific breakthrough in combining

progenitor and Leech DNA was a bad thing
 The assassination of Dr. Marcus by Wesker was a
terrible thing.
 The infrastructure projects funded by umbrella was in
whole bad for the society
 Wesker abandoning the umbrella corporation for its rival
had no positive impact. {1}
How crown of ethics is brought out
in resident evil.

 Brad returning to help the team

after abandoning them was a
terrible act.
 Wesker infecting himself with the T-
virus was a positive action.
 Chris, Jill, Rebecca and Barry
deciding to conduct a rogue
investigation was a good act
 Willis death was a positive event’
 The government destroying
Raccoon city with a missile attack
was a good act. {1}
How Plato's hierarchy views on society
is brought out in resident evil.

Plato believes only a wise ruler should rule the society, he

famously said ‘ one of the penalties of refusing to participate in
politics is that you end up governed by your inferiors’ , this is
brought out by the following people:
 Marcus should not have been head of the umbrella corporation as
his intentions were dishonest
 Brian irons should not have been head of Racoon city
department.
 Sergei Vladimir was not competent to be head of umbrellas
captain of the guard. {3}
How Plato's views on society hierarchy is
brought out in resident evil

 Chris being put in charge of apprehending Ricardo was

positive.
 The American president of 2013 was wise to rule the
American's
 Leon Kennedy was the right man to be the presidents
agent
 Derk Simmons the National Security Adviser was not
competent to hold that position. {3}
How Plato's views in the republic that experience,
history and wisdom can inform running of an ideal
society

He famously told his students, ‘ignorance is the root of all

evil’ , The following events illustrate a failure to apply
wisdom in governance:
 Wisdom dictates that there is no honor among thieves
Marcus should have foreseen his betrayal by spencer
 Racoon city authority should have questioned the source of
umbrellas resources to fund infrastructure projects
 Wesker and Burkin should have realized any unsanctioned
activity by the government was bound to fail. {5}
How Plato's views in the republic that experience, history
and wisdom can inform running of an ideal society

 Wesker should have realized that colonel Sergei

intentions for him were evil after their confrontation
 Chris, Jill, Rebecca and Barry should have realized that
Chief Irons was part of Umbrella due to his reluctance
to investigate them.
 Umbrella should have foreseen the outbreak of zombies
due to their illegal bioweapons program {5}
How Plato's views in the republic that experience, history and
wisdom can inform running of an ideal society

 Racoon city authority should have foreseen the U.S

government decision to destroy the city
 The American government failed to foresee the outbreak
of another bioweapon attack and take the necessary
steps.
 The U.S government failed to consider the possibility of
insiders in the government working with terrorists. {5}
How Confucius view that ethical harmony
is brought through skilled judgment
 When James Marcus and Oswell formed Umbrella to
develop biological weapons they failed to observe this
principle.
 Brian Irons failed to adhere to this principle as he
received bribes from Umbrella so as to keep silent over
their illegal operations
 Albert Wesker brought disharmony in Alphas operation
as he erred in judgment by betraying them and working
for Umbrella
 The S.T.A.R,S team sought to brought Harmony to
Racoon by investigating Umbrella on their own
How Resident Evil supports Kants view that are inherently
good and moral actions humans should adhere to.

 Ethan Winter illustrates by his search for his missing

wife that we should care for our fellow human beings
 The leader of the military squad that saved Ethan
teaches us that we should accomplish tasks that we set
out to undertake. (Denis, 2013, p. 135) 
 The American presidents decision to tell his citizens
about the T-Virus teaches us to be honest and
trustworthy.
 Chris Redfield decision to go to China and seek revenge
for his slain team members although admirable was
wrong as the law should take its course
How the game teaches us Kant's view that peace is only
achieved through universal democracy and cooperation
 Chrisand his team were able to capture Lucas Baker as
they worked together to achieve their goal
The military squad was able to save Ethan and achieve
their mission as they were able to work as a team.
Chris and Sheve demonstrate this principle as they
were able to work together and save Jill to remove his
mind controlling device.
Ada and Leo worked together to rescue Ashley and
defeat Saddler.
How resident evil brings out Machiavelli principle that
war competition and ambition are human nature
 The ambition of Edward James and Oswell men
led to the formation of Umbrella corporation to
develop bioweapons.
 Dr. Marcus developed a training center in Arklay
mountains to train researchers of high ranks.
 Marcus ambition took the better of him as he was
planning the overthrow of Spencer as Umbrellas
head (Schultz, 2015) .
 Spencer's due to competition between him and
Marcus shut down the training facility that
Marcus was running to remain the leader of
Umbrella
How The teachings of Nietsh on living by a greater set of
values and not conforming to negative influence are brought
out.
Rebecca and her S.T.A.R.S decide not to take
bribes from Umbrella corporation and pursue the
investigations on their own
 Werner decided to bring down Umbrella on his
own and infected himself with the serum so as to
provide a cure to the residents of Racoon.
The president of the United States decision to
inform his citizens on the T-virus showed he was
an honest man and did not conform to the deceit of
politicians.
Aristotle's philosophy of understanding and
knowledge built from studying things that happen in
the world.
 The American presidents decision to come
clean with his citizens shows that any
successful leader must be an honest one.
(Edwards, 2019, p. 15)
 The S.T.A.R.S team members decision to
pursue Umbrella was informed by their
knowledge that corruption destroys the
society
 Marcus was wise in deciding to bring down
Spencer as he studied the hostility behavior
he showed him and knew his intentions for
the company were evil
The truth of Michael Fouches philosophy that oppressed humans
will rise against their oppressors

 Marcus due to being oppressed by spencer decided he

would overthrow him and be head of Umbrella
 Rebecca and her S.T.A.R.S teammates embarked on a
rogue investigation of Umbrella as their chief Irons was
hampering their investigation (Michael, 2003) 
 Willy decided to go against Umbrella and release the
serum for the T-virus into the water supply of Raccon
City.
 Jill sacrifices her life by sending both her and wesker to
their deaths so as to save Racoon City from his grip
Conclusion
 Resident evil is a great game and the works of numerous
philosophers can be gotten from its story line This
philosophers include:
I. Plato
II. Confucius
III. Aristotle
IV. Macavelli
V. Nietzsche
VI. Kant
VII.Michael Foucets
 References
1) Denis, Lara. "Immanuel Kant:
Ethics." Philosophy, 2013.
2) Edwards, Mark. "The philosophy of
Aristotle." Aristotle and Early Christian
Thought, 2019, pp. 1-18.
3) Michael, Sandra. "Michel Foucault (Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy)." Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2 Apr. 2003,
plato.stanford.edu/entries/foucault/.
4) Plato, and Benjamin Jowett. The Dialogues of
Plato. Create space Independent Pub, 2013.
"Plato: Republic 10." Plato: Republic X, 1988, pp. 33-
104.
5) Schultz, Rebecca. "Niccolò Machiavelli (Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy)." Stanford Encyclopedia
of Philosophy, 13 Mar. 2015.
6) plato.stanford.edu/entries/machiavelli/.
7) Kure, S. (2013). Resident evil. SIGGRAPH Asia 2013
Computer Animation Festival on - SA '13. 
https://doi.org/10.1145/2542398.2542428