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Star Wars and Philosophy: More Powerful than You Can Possibly Imagine - Paperback | Diverse Reads

Star Wars and Philosophy: More Powerful than You Can Possibly Imagine

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The Star Wars films continue to revolutionize science fiction, creating new standards for cinematographic excellence, and permeating popular culture around the world. The films feature many complex themes ranging from good versus evil and moral development and corruption to religious faith and pragmatism, forgiveness and redemption, and many others.

The essays in this volume tackle the philosophical questions from these blockbuster films including: Was Anakin predestined to fall to the Dark Side? Are the Jedi truly role models of moral virtue? Why would the citizens and protectors of a democratic Republic allow it to descend into a tyrannical empire? Is Yoda a peaceful Zen master or a great warrior, or both? Why is there both a light and a dark side of the Force? Star Wars and Philosophy ponders the depths of these subjects and asks what it truly means to be mindful of the "living force."

ISBN-13: 9780812695830

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Open Court Publishing Company

Publication Date: 03-23-2005

Pages: 320

Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Series: Popular Culture & Philosophy #12

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments: Heroes of Rogue Squadron xi
Introduction: The Force Is with You ... but You're Not a Jedi Yet xiii
Part I "May The Force Be with You": The Philosophical Messages of Star Wars 1
1 "You Cannot Escape Your Destiny" (Or Can You?): Freedom and Predestination in the Skywalker Family 3
2 Stoicism in the Stars: Yoda, the Emperor, and the Force 16
3 The Far East of Star Wars 29
4 Moral Ambiguity in a Black-and-White Universe 39
Part II "Try Not-Do or Do Not": Ethics in a Galaxy Far, Far Away 55
5 The Aspiring Jedi's Handbook of Virtue 57
6 "A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy": Star Wars and the Problem of Evil 69
7 "Be Mindful of the Living Force": Environmental Ethics in Star Wars 80
8 Send in the Clones: The Ethics of Future Wars 93
Part III "Don't Call Me a Mindless Philosopher!": Alien Technologies and the Metaphysics of The Force 105
9 A Technological Galaxy: Heidegger and the Philosophy of Technology in Star Wars 107
10 "If Droids Could Think ...": Droids as Slaves and Persons 120
11 "Size Matters Not": The Force as the Causal Power of the Jedi 132
12 The Force Is With Us: Hegel's Philosophy of Spirit Strikes Back at the Empire 144
Part IV "There's Always a Bigger Fish": Truth, Faith and a Galactic Society 157
13 "What Is Thy Bidding, My Master?": Star Wars and the Hegelian Struggle for Recognition 159
14 By Any Means Necessary: Tyranny, Democracy, Republic, and Empire 168
15 Humanizing Technology: Flesh and Machine in Aristotle and The Empire Strikes Back 181
16 "A Certain Point of View": Lying Jedi, Honest Sith, and the Viewers Who Love Them 192
17 Religious Pragmatism through the Eyes of Luke Skywalker 205
Masters of the Jedi Council 213
The Phantom Index 217