Why We Need Ted Lasso and Philosophy David & Marybeth Baggett The growing popularity of Apple TV’s Ted Lasso is a bit of a surprise, given its inauspicious beginnings as a satirical NBC Sports promotion back in 2013. Premiering last August, this breakout hit has now garnered two Golden Globe nominations—for the show and lead…
Super Bowl Gambling—Daring the Odds and Gods Now and then someone plays with us—good old chance. Nietzsche, The Gay Science, #277 Alexander E. Hooke To spice up this weekend’s Super Bowl, you might place a bet on who will score the first touchdown, total points scored by halftime, or the player with the most…
A Class Act Explaining Karl Marx with Indiana Jones Christopher M. Innes Identifying Indy’s social class is not why we typically follow his brave pursuits. We watch Indy for his audacious and enterprising exploration of the ancient world and place him in a class of his own, and it’s this uniqueness we’d like to keep.…
Wayne: An Exploration of Justice Porn By Caleb McGee Husmann “I know it when I see it.” When tasked with providing a definition for pornography during the Jacobellis v. Ohio case, this is what Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart came up with. Some applauded him for being frank and realistic, others chastised him for being…
Call for Abstracts Avatar: The Last Airbender and Philosophy Edited by Helen De Cruz and Johan De Smedt 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 We are seeking submissions…
The Übermensch and Overcoming Nihilism in The Umbrella Academy By Elysia Balavage We humans find fascination with those among us who are “extraordinary.” From tales spun about the classical Achilles to the modern Wonder Woman, narratives about individuals with extraordinary abilities have captivated our attention for centuries. The ubiquity of such stories these days…
Michael Jordan or LeBron James? What the GOAT Debate can Teach Us By Victor Monnin Michael Jordan or LeBron James? Who is the greatest player of all time, the GOAT? I find myself addicted to the dispute over this apparently impossible question. Of course, as philosophical questions often do, the GOAT question, raises other questions:…
Never Die Cobra Kai and Albert Camus Edwardo Pérez In Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, Hannah Baker finds thirteen reasons to kill herself – among them, she’s been raped, her friends embarrass and betray her, and her reputation is ruined when she’s labeled a slut. For anyone, these are difficult issues to deal with, and for…
Diabolical Revenge on The Boys Edwardo Pérez There’s something about revenge that most of us intuitively understand. It’s universal, isn’t it? When we’re wronged or when someone we love is wronged, especially in a significant way, it seems natural to want to get even, right? Isn’t that what the Code of Hammurabi was all about?…
When Ignorance Truly Isn’t Bliss Lessons from We Happy Few By Brandon Packard We’ve heard it a million times, “Ignorance is Bliss.” It’s a phrase that has echoed through time, but where did it start? The phrase dates back to 1742 and a poem in which Thomas Gray states, “Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis…
