Pop Goes Philosophycolumn

Open Court

It began with Seinfeld, followed by The Simpsons and then The Matrix and then...

1. Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing (2000)

2. The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer (2001)

3. The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real (2002)

2003 4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale

5. The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All

2004 6. Baseball and Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Batter's Box

7. The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am

8. Woody Allen and Philosophy: You Mean My Whole Fallacy is Wrong?

9. Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts (2004) 10. Mel Gibson's Passion and Philosophy: The Cross, the Questions, the Controversy

2005 11. More Matrix and Philosophy: Revolutions and Reloaded Decoded 12. Star Wars and Philosophy: More Powerful Than You Can Possibly Imagine 13. Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice, and the Socratic Way 14. The Atkins Diet and Philosophy: Chewing the Fat with Kant and Nietzsche 15. The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy: The Lion, the Witch, and the Worldview 16. Hip Hop and Philosophy: Rhyme 2 Reason

2006 17. Bob Dylan and Philosophy: It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Thinking) 18. Harley-Davidson and Philosophy: Full-Throttle Aristotle 19. Monty Python and Philosophy: Nudge Nudge, Think Think! 20. Poker and Philosophy: Pocket Rockets and Philosopher Kings 21. U2 and Philosophy: How to Decipher an Atomic Band 22. The Undead and Philosophy: Chicken Soup for the Soulless 23. James Bond and Philosophy: Questions Are Forever 24. Bullshit and Philosophy: Guaranteed to Get Perfect Results Every Time 25. The Beatles and Philosophy: Nothing You Can Think That Can't Be Thunk

2007 26. South Park and Philosophy: Bigger, Longer, and More Penetrating 27. Hitchcock and Philosophy: Dial M for Metaphysics 28. The Grateful Dead and Philosophy: Getting High Minded about Love and Haight 29. Quentin Tarantino and Philosophy: How to Philosophize with a Pair of Pliers and a Blowtorch 30. Pink Floyd and Philosophy: Careful with that Axiom, Eugene!

2008 31. Johnny Cash and Philosophy: The Burning Ring of Truth 32. Bruce Springsteen and Philosophy: Darkness on the Edge of Truth 33. Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy: Mission Accomplished or Mission Frakked Up? 34. iPod and Philosophy: iCon of an ePoch 35. Star Trek and Philosophy: The Wrath of Kant 36. The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy: I Link Therefore I Am 37. The Wizard of Oz and Philosophy: Wicked Wisdom of the West

Forthcoming titles: 2009 and beyond

* World of Warcraft and Philosophy * Anime/Manga and Philosophy * Soccer and Philosophy * The Rolling Stones and Philosophy * Stephen Colbert and Philosophy * Transformers and Philosophy * Jimmy Buffett and Philosophy * Martial Arts and Philosophy * Radiohead and Philosophy * Led Zeppelin and Philosophy * The Golden Compass and Philosophy * Supervillains and Philosophy * Twilight and Philosophy * Anime and Philosophy * Manga and Philosophy * World of Warcraf and Philosophy * Red Sox and Philosophy...

And series editor George Reisch welcomes your suggestions: pcpideas@caruspub.com

The series' rationale? -

the show [film/musician/band/comic/pastime/concept/hand-held device...] has enough intelligence and depth to warrant some philosophical discussion, and as a popular [whatever], can also serve as a vehicle for exploring a variety of philosophical issues for a general audience.

The books also turn out to be a pretty good way of introducing philosophy to college students, I've learned...

Bullshit and PhilosophyGuaranteed to Get Perfect Results Every Time

In philosophy the quest for truth is sometimes better described as a slog through untruth and non- truth.

Harry Frankfurt is a good guide...As Jon Stewart discovered.

Monty Python and PhilosophyNudge Nudge, Think Think!

With so much non-truth marking the path, a philosopher needs to keep her sense of humor.

Meaning of life? Nothing much to it:

try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.

Bright Side

Galaxy Song

Brian

What is a bright?

A bright is a person who has a naturalistic worldview

A bright's worldview is free of supernatural and mystical elements

The ethics and actions of a bright are based on a naturalistic worldview

Some enthusiastic Brights -

Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, MichaelShermer, Penn & Teller, James Randi, Mynga Futtrell...

...the Kagins of Camp Quest...

Humanist Manifesto, signed by John Dewey and others)

FIRST: Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created. SECOND: Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as a result of a continuous process. THIRD: Holding an organic view of life, humanists find that the traditional dualism of mind and body must be rejected. FOURTH: Humanism recognizes that man's religious culture and civilization, as clearly depicted by anthropology and history, are the product of a gradual development due to his interaction with his natural environment and with his social heritage. The individual born into a particular culture is largely molded by that culture...

Monty Python's Philosophers' Song, featuring Professors Bruce, Bruce, Bruce, and Bruce of the University of Woolamaloo... and Michael Baldwin.

The Galaxy Song - YouTube Video(from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, 1983)

MAN IN PINK: Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown, And things seem hard or tough, [clunk] And people are stupid, obnoxious, or daft, And you feel that you've had quite enough, [boom] [singing] 105; #15 Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour, That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned, A sun that is the source of all our power. The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see Are moving at a million miles a day In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour, Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'...

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars. It's a hundred thousand light years side to side. It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick, But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide. We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point. We go 'round every two hundred million years, And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions In this amazing and expanding universe. [boom] [slurp]

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding In all of the directions it can whizz As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know, Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is. So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure, How amazingly unlikely is your birth, And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space, 'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth. [clunk]MRS. BROWN: [sigh] Makes you feel so, sort of, insignificant, doesn't it?MAN: Yeah. Yeah. [sniff] Can we have your liver, then?MRS. BROWN: Yeah. All right. You talked me into it.

Against Transcendentalism: Monty Python's The Meaning of Life and Buddhism

Stephen Asma

Transcendentalists think there's a higher, more real world elsewhere,and they want to go there more than they want anything in the world.They want, in fact, to rise above the world.

The meaning of life for the transcendentalist is hidden from the conceptions of common sense. 99

Death and human suffering [are] not as troubling for the trans-cendentalist thinker because this short illusory life will be infinitelyoutweighed by the next world...

Buddha examines all the elements of the human being,finds that they are all fleeting, and finds no additionalpermanent entity or soul amidst the tangle of human faculties. There is no ghost in the machine. [Gilbert Ryleon Descartes] 102

*Are you a transcendental thinker too - really impressed down here 95-6 with an alleged supernatural entity, force, or Being that you love more than your fellow humans? 97

Must a transcendentalist care more about God than about people? Is that an ethically defensible position?

Can a transcendentalist be fully compassionate towards

human suffering? 100 A reliable neighbor? A good citizen? In

general, does belief in another world compete for the energy

and attention we have available to deal with the problems of

this one? 98, PW 37

Does belief in a soul make you less ethical in this life? 104,

Does soul exist from the beginning or must it be brought into existence and then re-created day-by-day... ? 108-109

Does life become meaningless once you give up the idea that you are playing a role in a transcendentally planned drama? 106

*What do you see as the main alternative(s) to beinga transcendentalist thinker? Do you agree with the Brights?

*If you reject transcendentalism (as Asma defines it on95), what is the meaning of death?

More broadly,

*How does your view of the meaning of life reflect yourunderstanding of death?

Woody Allen and Philosophy: You Mean My Whole Fallacy is Wrong?

His Apology is not Socrates' -

Agathon: But it was you that proved that death doesnt exist.

Allen: Hey, listen - Ive proved a lot of things. Thats how I pay my rent. Theories and little observations. A puckish remark now and then. Occasional maxims. It beats picking olives, but lets not get carried away.

Agathon: But you have proved many times that the soul is immortal.

Allen: And it is! On paper. See, thats the thing about philosophy - its not all that functional once you get out of class.

Annie Hall expanding

Manhattan worth living

Myth of the Cave, Republic Bk VII...

...a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.Like ourselves...

The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real

How do you know what's real? Is it just a matter of electrical signals interpreted by the brain? Why does Cypher reject reality? (Why do Plato's cave-dwellers fear the light?)

The late Harvard philosopher Robert Nozick proposed an experience machine thought experiment... Do you want the experience of happiness? Or do you want happiness?

Baseball and Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Batter's Box

'Only a game' - ?!!?

It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game, said Grantland Rice. For surprisingly many men and women of letters it's how you think about it, too.

Jimmy Buffett and Philosophy (forthcoming)

I, too, have contributed to the [ _____] and Philosophy epidemic. Turns out (on my view) that Buffett's license to chill is not all that different from what pragmatist William James (1842-1910) called moral holidays...

Jimmy Buffett and PhilosophyEdited by Erin McKenna and Scott L. PrattPopular Culture and Philosophy series

Jimmy Buffett and his music have affected literally hundreds of thousands of people around the world. His work also spans generationshe has been performing for over forty yearsand genres. Is Buffett's music just a good time, or is more going on? Jimmy Buffett and Philosophy explores the work of a self-proclaimed non-philosopher and shows that the work of Buffett is indeed philosophical. The essays in this volume also use Buffett's work to exemplify and clarify important philosophical issues such as the meaning of community, personal identity, and the nature of being and the ideas of beauty, pleasure, and responsibility through the examination of his songs, novels, autobiography, concerts, and his fans.

Unlike many of the musicians discussed in the Popular Culture and Philosophy series (and elsewhere), Buffett not only writes and performs his own music, but also reflects on his music and its meaning in his autobiography, A Pirate Looks at Fifty, and in the context of his short stories and novels. If anything is clear from his stories in print, it is that the musicwhether it is taken as simple or simply funemerges from his experience and helps him to make sense of good times and bad. For better or worse, his ability to engage his own life connects broadly with others and provides a starting point for new and meaningful experience.

Some would dismiss Buffett's work as simple entertainment, but on close examination, his work marks a critical engagement with different conceptions of a life well lived. Sometimes the engagement acknowledges the loss of meaning and the limits of human life. At other times, Buffett celebrates pluralism and possibility and makes a case for the idea that engaging in the experience of music is itself a transformative experience. As Josiah Royce said, "You philosophize when you reflect critically upon what you are actually doing in the world. What you are doing of course is, in the first place, living. And life involves passions, faiths, doubts, and courage. The critical inquiry into what all these things mean and imply is philosophy." As an authorand as a songwriter and singerBuffett inquires into the troubles and joys of daily life and, for thousands, returns new meaning.

Jimmy Buffett and Philosophy is aimed at providing an accessible approach to thinking about Buffett's music philosophically and for thinking about philosophy from the perspective of Jimmy Buffett's music.

Essays in this volume raise questions about figures in the philosophical tradition from ancient to contemporary philosophy including Epicurus, Diogenes, Martin Heidegger, Josiah Royce, William James, John Dewey, and Judith Butler. They also raises questions about a wide range of traditional philosophical issues including aesthetic theory, identity, knowledge, culture, and being.

Bart is not stymied by philosophical puzzlers like 'How does thought hook onto the world?' -Kelly Jolley, Auburn

The Simpsons Archive

The patriarch of the most famous family on television has said Mr Obama should abandon plans to print more money and instead focus on beer...

Homer said: "If I was President Obama for a day, I'd order the Treasury to stop printing money and start brewing beer. That would end this depression pretty damn fast!" -Telegraph