Call for Abstracts

Mad Max and Philosophy 

Edited by David Koepsell and Matt Meyer

The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series 

Please circulate and post widely. 

Apologies for cross posting. 

To propose ideas for future volumes in the Blackwell series please contact the Series Editor, William Irwin, at williamirwin@kings.edu 

Abstracts and subsequent essays should be philosophically substantial but accessible, written to engage the intelligent lay reader. Contributors of accepted essays will receive an honorarium.

Possible Topics and Chapters:

Anarchy, State, and Dystopia

Max as Justice without law, Nozick and the minimal state; Heroes and antiheroes – Max vs. Humongous, Max vs. Immortan Joe, Max vs. Master Blaster; Bartertown, markets, and morality; Mad Marx: Social Justice and Sharing Resources in The Wasteland; Hobbes and the Wasteland: The Future State of Nature

Existentialism and the End of the World

Family and “the other”; Religion and post-apocalyptic city-states; Existential survival – what’s it mean to be human?; Immortan Joe’s and Mad Max’ Masks: Nietzsche on the Mask; Mad Max and the Sanity Norm (Foucault?): “Am I Crazy or is Everyone Else?”; Drifterus Interruptus: Is Sartre right that “Hell is Other People”?

The Just and the Good

Violence and deception as moral forces; Auntie Entity – charismatic dictatorship and order; Technology vs. nature; Cops and vigilantes; Immortan Joe as Anti-Philosopher King and the War Boys as Guardians?; Johnny the Boy and Goose: When is Breaking Police Protocol Just?; Johnny the Boy vs. Toe Cutter on Omissions: Trying to do what is right among terrible peers; Auntie Entity, Mad Max, and Bartertown: When is consenting to a deal not really consent?; Blaster, Vulnerability, and Evil: When does vulnerability limit one’s moral responsibility?; Oasis Encounters: Does helping others provide Mad Max happiness or disrupt it?

Gender and Procreation

Feminism in Mad Max; Power and procreation, Malthus, Mill, and survival of the species; Imperator Furiosa and the Feminism of Mad Max: Fury Road; Max and Furiosa: The Reversal of Heroic Gender Roles in Fury Road; Warrior Cult-ure and War Boys: Arrive At Valhalla all Shiny and Chrome; Oases within Deserts of Violence: The Peaceful Feminine in Savannah Nix and The Seven Mothers

Society and Technology

The Green Place vs. Oil Town: The Future of Environmentalism; Furiosa’s Arm: Merleau-Ponty and Technoscience on Prosthetics; Bartertown: Lifeboat Ethics, The Tragedy of the Commons, and Peak Oil; Post-Humanism and biohacking in the wasteland

Submission Guidelines:

1. Submission deadline for abstracts (300-500 words) and CVs: August 2, 2021. 
2. Submission deadline for drafts of accepted papers:  November 2, 2021. 

Kindly submit by e-mail (with or without Word attachment) to: drkoepsell@gmail.com