The Stand and the State of Nature by M. Blake Wilson When COVID-19––the pandemic itself but also the unprecedented social and political responses to it––hit the United States in March, 2020, savvy booksellers might have predicted that old books about plagues would start creeping back up the charts. After all, George Orwell’s 1984 was #1…
“Killing Justice” in The Expanse Jeffery L. Nicholas Leviathan Wakes, the first title in the award winning series The Expanse by James S. A. Corey, is a title that intrigues as it calls to mind Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan. Jim Holden and Joe Miller, the primary protagonists, force us to ask, when is it okay to…
Captain Underpants and The Philosophy of Humor! Edwardo Pérez One of the best scenes in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas is when Joe Pesci’s Tommy berates Ray Liotta’s Henry after Henry told Tommy “You’re really funny.” As Tommy repeatedly asks Henry: “How am I funny?” What’s great about the scene is that as funny as Pesci’s Tommy…
Finding The Better Angels Of Our Nature in The 100 Edwardo Pérez There are two things we need to survive: pain and fear. When they work right, they motivate us to preserve ourselves. But, if we let pain and fear overtake us, then the opposite happens and instead of fighting to live we convince ourselves…
Unnatural Selection in The 100 Edwardo Pérez Death is a fate we all share. And yet, we do whatever we can to give ourselves and our children an advantage over death, anything to increase the odds of survival to cheat death and prolong life, because most of us aren’t willing to accept its inevitability.…
Compassion in a Virtual State of Nature Catfish The TV Show and Philosophy By Randee Melançon and Jérôme Melançon To “catfish” is for a person to engage in an online relationship on the basis of lies about parts or all of who they are. With no government law or authority to appeal to, victims of…
Banshee and the Political Philosophy of Carl Schmitt By Beau Mullen Banshee is one of the most violent shows in television history. Not an episode passes without a bloody shoot-out or a bone crushing fist fight. The protagonist is an ex-con who assumes the identity of the newly arrived sheriff. He intends to use the…
Supernatural and Philosophy 10 Years, 200 episodes, and Millions of Fans Supernatural and the Social Contract By Jillian L. Canode The 2014 fall television season marked the beginning of the 10th year of Supernatural. Despite the show’s longevity and fans who are über devoted to it, many people still say, “I’ve never heard of…
The Ultimate Star Trek and Philosophy Edited by Kevin S. Decker and Jason T. Eberl The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series Please circulate and re-post widely . Abstracts and subsequent essays should be philosophically substantial but accessible, written to engage the intelligent lay reader. Works focusing on the five television series and twelve…
The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series 