Avatar and Philosophy E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 470

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

James Cameron's critically acclaimed movie Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards and received countless accolades for its breath-taking visuals and use of 3D technology. But beyond its cinematic splendour, can Avatar also offer us insights into business ethics, empathy, disability, and the relationship between mind and body? Can getting to know the Na'vi, an alien species, enlarge our vision and help us to "see" both our world and ourselves in new ways? Avatar and Philosophy is a revealing journey through the world of Pandora and the huge range of philosophical themes raised by James Cameron's groundbreaking film * Explores philosophical issues such as religion, morality, aesthetics, empathy, identity, the relationship of mind and body, environmental and business ethics, technology, and just war theory * Examines a wide range of topics from the blockbuster movie, including attitudes toward nature, our responsibilities to nonhuman species, colonialism, disability, and communitarian ethics * Written by an esteemed group of philosophers who are avid fans of Avatar themselves * Explains philosophical concepts in an enjoyable and accessible manner that will appeal to all levels of readers * With a new trilogy of sequels now announced, this is the ideal entry point for understanding the world of Pandora for fans and newcomers alike

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

Cover

The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series

Title page

Copyright page

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I: Seeing Eywa

1 The Silence of Our Mother

How Can You See, with Jujubes for Eyes?

The Gifts of Our Mother

The Work of Our Mother

Mother Takes Sides

2 “Eywa Will Provide”

“They’re Fly-Bitten Savages Who Live in a Tree”

“You Are Not in Kansas Anymore. You Are on Pandora”

“We Will See If Your Insanity Can Be Cured”

“She’s Always Going on About … the Spirits of Animals”

“The Most Hostile Environment Known to Man”

“I See You, Brother, and Thank You”

3 The Tantra of

Avatar

Weaving with Eywa

“These Dreams of Flying”

Divine, Mind-Blowing Bliss

“Maybe You Should Teach Me”

Tasting the Nectar

Alien Sex and Sandstone Temples

“I Don’t Want to Be Late for My Own Party”

Acknowledgments

Part II: Seeing the Na'vi

4 Learning to See the Na’vi

The Company Man, the Colonel, and the Grunts

Good Observation Isn’t

Seeing

“I Need to Take Some Samples”

Jake, Empty Cup of the Jarhead Clan

Loving and Learning

5 It Doesn’t Take an Avatar

“A Demon in a False Body”

“I’d Say We Understand Them Just Fine”

“No One Can Teach You to See”

“My Cup Is Empty”

“I Fell in Love”

“I Didn’t Sign Up for This Shit”

6 “I See You” through a Glass Darkly

Empathy in Blue

Empathy Versus the Vulcan Mind Meld

Empathy,

Tsaheylu

, and the iPod

“Get Out of My Head!”

Tsaheylu

and Mirror Neurons

How the Video Log Helps Us Think: The Extended Mind Hypothesis

Norm Spellman’s Homework: The Socially Extended Mind

Nature, Culture, and USB Portals

Part III: Seeing Nature

7

Seeing

the Na’vi Way

“They Killed Their Mother”: The High Price of Insanity

Philosophers, Dogs, and Viperwolves

Seeing through the Eye of Eywa

Wild Justice for All

Where There’s Life, There’s Mind

“More Connections Than the Human Brain”

Last Shadow

8 They’re

Not

Just Goddamn Trees

Spirit-“Driven” Avatars

The Hungry Na’vi

“Just Goddamn Trees”

The Romantic Alternative: “Feel Her”

The Dialectical Alternative: “All Energy Is Borrowed”

“The Eye of Eywa”

9 “Everything Is Backwards Now”

Deep Humanity in an Alien Avatar

“Out There Is the True World”

“Lost in the Woods”

“Everything Is Backwards Now”

Part IV: Seeing Our Bodies

10 The Identity of Avatarsand Na’vi Wisdom

The Continuity of the Self: Your Future Is in His Hands

The Body and the Self: Nothing on Earth Could Come between Them

Na’vi Wisdom: An Extreme Taste of Reality

The Identity of Avatars: It’s Nothing Personal

11 “I Got This”

“That Is Just Wrong”

“Maybe I Was Sick of Doctors Telling Me What I Couldn’t Do”

Is Jake Just a Gamer?

“Yeah, Baby, I Got This!”

“One Life Ends, Another Begins”

12 “See the World We Come From”

Not Mad Scientists

Science as Salvation: Über-Na’vi Messiah

Transhumanist Mind Transfer and the Ghost in the Avatar

“Through the Eye of Eywa”

Spiritual Evolution: Transcending the Human

Acknowledgments

Part V: Seeing Our Political Communities

13 “We Will Fight Terror with Terror”

“They Attacked Me! How Am I the Bad Guy?”

“There Was a Sign from Eywa”

“I Was a Warrior Who Dreamed He Could Bring Peace”

“It’ll Be Humane. More or Less”

“Find Me a Carrot That’ll Get Them to Move, Otherwise It’s Gonna Have to Be All Stick”

“I Was Hoping for Some Sort of Tactical Plan that Didn’t Involve Martyrdom”

“We Will See If Your Insanity Can Be Cured”

14 The Community and the Individual in

Avatar

“We’d Like to Talk to You about Taking Over His Contract”

“Think You Can Do That for Me, Son?”

“Protect the People”

Bio-Communitarianism

A Cautionary Tale

Acknowledgments

15

Avatar

and Colonialism

Cutting Pandora into Two

Building Roads for “Blue Monkeys”

“I’d Say We Understand Them Just Fine, Thanks to Jake Here”

Leaving Pandora

“White Savior” in a Blue Body

Part VI: Seeing Our Ethical Responsibilities

16 “All That Cheddar”

Business as Boxing

“I Didn’t Make Up the Rules”

Who Owns Hometree?

“Are You Gonna Kill Children?”

“Blue Monkeys” and “Fly-Bitten Savages”

Ethical Sleight of Hand

Rationalizing in a Galaxy Far, Far Away

“You Don’t Want That Kind of Blood on Your Hands”

Humanity, Inc.

17 “We Have an Indigenous Population of Humanoids Called the Na’vi”

Scott Pratt’s

Native Pragmatism

The Principle of Interaction

The Principle of Pluralism

The Principle of Community

The Principle of Growth

Acknowledgments

18 I See Animals

C-Fibers, Hammerheads, and Zoe Saldana

Do Hexapedes Grieve? Should Prolemurises Vote?

This Consent Is

Killing

Me

“Excuse Me. This Is My Video-Log Here”

“Personally, I Don’t Feel These Tree-Hugging Traitors Deserve Steak”

“I See You, Brother” – And Kill You!

Acknowledgments

Part VII: Seeing the Movie

19 The Digital Cabinet of Curiosities

The Na’vi on Main Street

Running with Jake in the Recreation Yard

The Na’vi on the Other Side of the Keyhole

The Two Jakes

Into the Third Dimension

But Is

Avatar

Too Real?

Ecology and Special Effects

Notes on Contributors

Index

End User License Agreement

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

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The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series