Is Downton Abbey Reactionary? Janelle Pötzsch For many people, the popular British TV-series Downton Abbey (2010-2015) is a deeply conservative text which celebrates the social stratification of a bygone-era (Byrne 2015, Layne 2020, Robison 2020). Such interpretation suggests itself especially in the comparison between the Dowager Countess Violet Crawley with Isobel Crawley, mother of the…
Severance and Philosophy Call for Abstracts Edited by Eric Bronson and Jason T. Eberl 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 Severance is a highly popular and critically…
Shōgun and the Philosophy of Deception Edwardo Pérez FX Productions’ award winning 2024 adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 novel, Shōgun (which streams on Disney+ and Hulu), dramatizes many philosophical issues—from the moral issues involving duty and the greater good depicted through the subtleties of Japanese culture, and the various codes of honor observed through rituals,…
Listen to Joshua Horn, editor of The Last of Us and Philosophy, discussing the book on the ProfNoctis podcast.
The essay below originally appears as Chapter of Black Sabbath and Philosophy: Mastering Reality. Beyond Good and Evil Facing your Demons with Black Sabbath and Existentialism William Irwin You know about the lost Black Sabbath album, right? They recorded it with Ozzy in 1999, but legal battles kept it from being released. It was supposed…
Suicide and Redemption: James Sunderland’s Quest for Meaning in Life in the Streets of Silent Hill 2 Franlu Vulliermet Silent Hill 2 tells the story of James Sunderland, who returns to Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his dead wife, Mary, telling him she is awaiting him there in “their special place.” Following James,…
The essay below originally appears as Chapter 6 of The Witcher and Philosophy, edited by Matthew Brake and Kevin S. Decker. Compatibilism and the Law of Surprise: Myth, Free Will, Destiny, and Hedgehogs Shane J. Ralston “The Law of Surprise is a law as old as humanity itself. The law dictates that a man saved by…
Graduate Student Conference Pop Culture and Philosophy Keynote Speaker: William Irwin, King’s College April 12, 2025 The graduate students of the UAlbany Philosophy department are proud to announce that the topic of The 17th Annual UAPA Grad Student Conference is Pop Culture and Philosophy. All are invited and the conference is open to the public.…
A philosophical exploration of Joker and the meaning of the iconic antagonist’s murderous escapades A diabolically sinister but clownish villain, Joker is a symbolically rich and philosophically fascinating character. Both crazed and cunning, sadistically cruel but seductively charming, the Clown Prince of Crime embodies everything opposed to the positive ideals of order and justice defended…
Beyond Human Nietzschean Reflections in Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant Mitchell Provow To ground this exploration, we begin by considering Nietzsche’s reflections on creation and kinship from Twilight of the Idols (1889): “‘Why so hard?’ The kitchen coal once said to the diamond ‘After all, are we not close kin?’” This is a profound reflection on…
The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series 