What canSouth Park tell us about Socrates and the nature of evil? How doesThe Office help us to understand Sartre and existentialist ethics? CanBattlestar Galactica shed light on the existence of God?Introducing Philosophy Through Pop Culture uses popular culture to illustrate important philosophical concepts and the work of the major philosophersWith examples from film, television, and music includingSouth Park,The Matrix ,X-Men,Batman,Harry Potter, Metallica andLost, even the most abstract and complex philosophical ideas become easier to graspFeatures key essays from across the BlackwellPhilosophy and Pop Culture series, as well as helpful editorial material and a glossary of philosophical termsFrom metaphysics to epistemology; from ethics to the meaning of life, this unique introduction makes philosophy as engaging as popular culture itselfSupplementary website available with teaching guides, sample materials and links to further resources atwww.pop-philosophy.org

William Irwin is professor of Philosophy and Director of the Honors Program at Kings College in Pennsylvania. In addition to publishing in leading scholarly journals such asPhilosophy and Literature andThe Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Irwin originated the philosophy and popular culture genre of books withSeinfeld and Philosophy in 1999. Irwin has also co-editedThe Simpsons and Philosophy and editedThe Matrix and Philosophy andMetallica and Philosophy. He is currently the General Editor of the BlackwellPhilosophy and Pop Culture series.

David Kyle Johnson is assistant professor of Philosophy at Kings College in Pennsylvania. In addition to his scholarly work on philosophy of religion, Johnson has editedHeroes and Philosophy and is also a contributor to the BlackwellPhilosophy and Pop Culture series, having written chapters onSouth Park, Family Guy,The Office, Battlestar Galactica, andBatman. Johnson hosts a podcast on Pop Culture and Philosophy at www.philosophyandpopculture.com.

Introduction.

How to Use this Book in a Philosophy Course.

Part I. What is Philosophy?

Section Introduction.

Socrates and the Spirit of Philosophy
1. Flatulence and Philosophy: A Lot of Hot Air, or the Corruption of the Youth? (William W. Young III).

Logic and Fallacies
2. The Chewbacca Defense: ASouth Park Logic Lesson (Robert Arp).

Relativism and Truth
3. Wikiality, Truthiness, and Gut Thinking: Doing Philosophy Colbert-Style (David Kyle Johnson).

Part II. Epistemology.

Section Introduction.

The Ethics of Belief
4. You Know, I learned Something Today: Stan Marsh and the Ethics of Belief (Henry Jacoby).

Skepticism
5. Tumbling Down the Rabbit Hole: Knowledge, Reality, and the Pit of Skepticism (Matt Lawrence).

The Definition of Knowledge, the Gettier Problem, and the Ethics of Belief
6. Adama's True Lie: Earth and the Problem of Knowledge(Eric J. Silverman).

Part III. Metaphysics.

Section Introduction.

Philosophy of Mind
7. Mind and Body in Zion (Matt Lawrence).

Personal Identity
8. The Many Lives of Wolverine: Memory and Personal Identity(Jason Southworth).

Freedom and Determinism
9. Destiny in the Wizarding World (Jeremy Pierce).

Artificial Intelligence, The Turing Test, and the Chinese Room
10. The Terminator Wins: Is the Extinction of the Human Race the End of People, or Just the Beginning? (Greg Littmann).

Part IV. Philosophy of Religion.

Section Introduction.

The Problem of Evil
11. Cartmanland and the Problem of Evil (David Kyle Johnson).

Faith Seeking Understanding
12. Aquinas and Rose on Faith and Reason (Daniel B. Gallagher).

Arguments for the Existence of God
13. "I Am an Instrument of God": Religious Belief, Atheism, and Meaning (Jason T. Eberl and Jennifer A. Vines).

Part V. Ethics.

Section Introduction.

Why Be Moral?
14. Plato on Gyges' Ring of Invisibility: The Power ofHeroes and the Value of Virtue (Don Adams).

Virtue Ethics
15. The Virtues of Humor: WhatThe Office Can Teach Us About Aristotle's Ethics (Sean McAleer).

Utilitarianism and Deontology
16. Why Doesnt Batman Kill the Joker? (Mark D. White).

17. Means, Ends, and the Critique of Pure Superheroes (J. Robert Loftis).

Part VI. Challenges to Traditional Ethics.

Section Introduction.

Nietzschean and Marxist Critique
18. Metallica, Nietzsche, and Marx: The Immorality of Morality (Peter S. Fosl).

19. When Machines Get Souls: Nietzsche on the Cylon Uprising (Robert Sharp).

Existentialist Ethics
20. Being-in-The Office: Sartre, the Look, and the Viewer (Matthew Meyer and Greg Schneider).

21. Batmans Confrontation with Death, Angst, and Freedom (David M. Hart).

Feminist Critique
22. You care for everybody: Camerons Ethics of Care (Renee Kyle).

23. Vampire Love: The Second Sex Negotiates the 21st Century (Bonnie Mann).

24.Postmodern Critique
Killing the Griffins: A Murderous Exposition of Postmodernism (J. Jeremy Wisnewski).

Part VII. Social and Political Philosophy.

Section Introduction.

Social Contract Theory
25.Lost's State of Nature (Richard Davies).

Marxism
26. Laughter between Distraction and Awakening: Marxist Themes inThe Office (Michael Bray).

Torture
27. The Ethics of Torture in24: Shockingly Banal(Dónal P. OMathúna).

Race
28. Mutants and the Metaphysics of Race (Jeremy Pierce).

Part VIII. Eastern Views.

Section Introduction.

29. Zen and the Art of Cylon Maintenance (James McRae).

30. The Sound of One House Clapping: The Unmannerly Doctor as Zen Rhetorician (Jeffrey C. Ruff and Jeremy Barris).

31. The Tao of the Bat (Mark D. White).

Part IX. The Meaning of Life.

Section Introduction.

32.The Theistic View
Beyond Godrics Hollow: Life after Death and the Search for Meaning (Jonathan L. Walls and Jerry L. Walls).

33.The Socratic View
Selfish, Base Animals Crawling Across the Earth: House and the Meaning of Life (Henry Jacoby).

Glossary.

Notes on Contributors.

Sources.

Index.