Teaching ethics with comic strips.

It's not easy to teach the MTV generation of college students about the origins of modern philosophy and ethics. Mention Friedrich Nietzsche and Soren Kierkegaard, and eyes begin to glaze. Philosophy professors Courtney Campbell and Lani Roberts of Oregon State University, Corvallis, have come up with an innovative way of reaching their students, though. They use comic strips.

Instead of pontificating about Kierkegaard's existentialism, they examine "Calvin and Hobbes." To introduce Immanuel Kant's primary moral law, they might, for instance, use a panel from "For Better or Worse." "Getting beyond the humor of comic strips takes philosophical skill and a great deal of self-examination," indicates Campbell. "We can hold up these comic strips and look at ourselves, while not taking ourselves too seriously."

He and Roberts say "Calvin and Hobbes," the comic strip about a young boy and his stuffed tiger, is the all-time champion for providing examples of classic philosophy and ethical dilemmas. Written by Bill Watterson, it no longer is a daily series, but still can be found in books and calendars.

It isn't unusual for comic strips to tackle societal issues these days, but it wasn't always like that. The trend began in the 1960s, Campbell maintains, when "Peanuts" cartoonist Charles Schulz used panels pitting Snoopy against the Red Baron to make social commentary on the Vietnam War. In the 1970s, "Doonesbury" popularized the trend of politicizing comics to the point where many newspapers debated whether to put the Garry Trudeau strip on the comic page or the editorial page.

"Calvin and Hobbes" came along to rule the 1980s. Roberts and Campbell both insist that Watterson had to...