The Ultimate Star Trek and Philosophy E-Book

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

Seitenzahl: 664

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

• Reunites the editors of Star Trek and Philosophy with Starfleet’s finest experts for 31 new, highly logical essays
• Features a complete examination of the Star Trek universe, from the original series to the most recent films directed by J.J. Abrams, Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
• Introduces important concepts in philosophy through the vast array of provocative issues raised by the series, such as the ethics of the Prime Directive, Star Trek’s philosophy of peace, Data and Voyager’s Doctor as persons, moral relativism and the Federation’s quest for liberation, the effect of alternate universes on reality and identity, the Borg as transhumanists, Federation Trekonomics, Star Trek’s secular society, and much, much more…!
• An enterprising and enlightening voyage into deep space that will appeal to hardcore fans and science fiction enthusiasts alike
• Publishing in time to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the original TV series

Leseprobe

The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series Series editor William Irwin

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, and a healthy helping of popular culture clears the cobwebs from Kant. Philosophy has had a public relations problem for a few centuries now. This series aims to change that, showing that philosophy is relevant to your life--and not just for answering the big questions like “To be or not to be?” but also for answering the little questions: “To watch or not to watch South Park?” Thinking deeply about TV, movies, and music doesn't make you a “complete idiot.” In fact it might make you a philosopher, someone who believes the unexamined life is not worth living and the unexamined cartoon is not worth watching.

Already published in the series:

24 and Philosophy: The World According to Jack Edited by Jennifer Hart Weed, Richard Brian Davis, and Ronald Weed

30 Rock and Philosophy: We Want to Go to There Edited by J. Jeremy Wisnewski

Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy: Curiouser and Curiouser Edited by Richard Brian Davis

Arrested Development and Philosophy: They've Made a Huge Mistake Edited by Kristopher Phillips and J. Jeremy Wisnewski

Avatar and Philosophy: Learning to See Edited by George A. Dunn

The Avengers and Philosophy: Earth's Mightiest Thinkers Edited by Mark D. White

Batman and Philosophy: The Dark Knight of the Soul Edited by Mark D. White and Robert Arp

Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy: Knowledge Here Begins Out There Edited by Jason T. Eberl

The Big Bang Theory and Philosophy: Rock, Paper, Scissors, Aristotle, Locke Edited by Dean Kowalski

The Big Lebowski and Philosophy: Keeping Your Mind Limber with Abiding Wisdom Edited by Peter S. Fosl

BioShock and Philosophy: Irrational Game, Rational Book Edited by Luke Cuddy

Black Sabbath and Philosophy: Mastering Reality Edited by William Irwin

The Daily Show and Philosophy: Moments of Zen in the Art of Fake News Edited by Jason Holt

Downton Abbey and Philosophy: The Truth Is Neither Here Nor There Edited by Mark D. White

Dungeons & Dragons and Philosophy: Read and Gain Advantage on All Wisdom Checks Edited by Christopher Robichaud

Ender's Game and Philosophy: The Logic Gate is DownEdited by Kevin S. Decker

Family Guy and Philosophy: A Cure for the Petarded Edited by J. Jeremy Wisnewski

Final Fantasy and Philosophy: The Ultimate Walkthrough Edited by Jason P. Blahuta and Michel S. Beaulieu

Game of Thrones and Philosophy: Logic Cuts Deeper Than Swords Edited by Henry Jacoby

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Philosophy: Everything is Fire Edited by Eric Bronson

Green Lantern and Philosophy: No Evil Shall Escape this Book Edited by Jane Dryden and Mark D. White

Heroes and Philosophy: Buy the Book, Save the World Edited by David Kyle Johnson

The Hobbit and Philosophy: For When You've Lost Your Dwarves, Your Wizard, and Your Way Edited by Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson

House and Philosophy: Everybody Lies Edited by Henry Jacoby

House of Cards and Philosophy: Capitalism without Consumerism Edited by J. Edward Hackett

The Hunger Games and Philosophy: A Critique of Pure Treason Edited by George Dunn and Nicolas Michaud

Inception and Philosophy: Because It's Never Just a Dream Edited by David Johnson

Iron Man and Philosophy: Facing the Stark Reality Edited by Mark D. White

Lost and Philosophy: The Island Has Its Reasons Edited by Sharon M. Kaye

Mad Men and Philosophy: Nothing Is as It Seems Edited by James South and Rod Carveth

Metallica and Philosophy: A Crash Course in Brain Surgery Edited by William Irwin

The Office and Philosophy: Scenes from the Unfinished Life Edited by J. Jeremy Wisnewski

Sons of Anarchy and Philosophy: Brains Before Bullets Edited by George A. Dunn and Jason T. Eberl

South Park and Philosophy: You Know, I Learned Something Today Edited by Robert Arp

Spider-Man and Philosophy: The Web of Inquiry Edited by Jonathan Sanford

Superman and Philosophy: What Would the Man of Steel Do? Edited by Mark D. White

Supernatural and Philosophy: Metaphysics and Monsters ... for Idjits Edited by Galen Foresman

Terminator and Philosophy: I'll Be Back, Therefore I Am Edited by Richard Brown and Kevin Decker

True Blood and Philosophy: We Wanna Think Bad Things with You Edited by George Dunn and Rebecca Housel

Twilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality Edited by Rebecca Housel and J. Jeremy Wisnewski

The Ultimate Daily Show and Philosophy: More Moments of Zen, More Moments of Indecision Theory Edited by Jason Holt

The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy: Hogwarts for Muggles Edited by Gregory Bassham

The Ultimate Lost and Philosophy: Think Together, Die Alone Edited by Sharon Kaye

The Ultimate South Park and Philosophy: Respect My Philosophah! Edited by Robert Arp and Kevin S. Decker

The Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy: You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned Edited by Jason T. Eberl and Kevin S. Decker

The Ultimate Star Trek and Philosophy: The Search for Socrates Edited by Kevin S. Decker and Jason T. Eberl

The Walking Dead and Philosophy: Shotgun. Machete. Reason. Edited by Christopher Robichaud

Watchmen and Philosophy: A Rorschach Test Edited by Mark D. White

Veronica Mars and Philosophy: Investigating the Mysteries of Life (Which is a Bitch Until You Die) Edited by George A. Dunn

X-Men and Philosophy: Astonishing Insight and Uncanny Argument in the Mutant X-Verse Edited by Rebecca Housel and J. Jeremy Wisnewski

THE ULTIMATE STAR TREK AND PHILOSOPHY

THE SEARCH FOR SOCRATES

Edited by

Kevin S. Decker

and

Jason T. Eberl

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I: Alpha Quadrant: Home Systems

Chapter 1: “The More Complex the Mind, the Greater the Need for the Simplicity of Play”

Life Is Not for the Timid

Mrs. Sisko, Can Bennie Come Out and Play?

Our “Continuing Mission”

Notes

Chapter 2: Aristotle and James T. Kirk: The Problem of Greatness

Kirk and Megalopsychia

Kirk as a Law unto Himself

Exile to Delta Vega

Captain of the Enterprise

Notes

Chapter 3: The Moral Psychology of a Starship Captain

“I Don't Believe in No-Win Scenarios”

“I Would Have Told Him Anything”

“I Have a Chance to Change All That”

“No Better Than the Enemy”

“The Tapestry of My Life”

Notes

Chapter 4: “Make It So”: Kant, Confucius, and the Prime Directive

The Search for Spock's Conscience

Into Vagueness

The Final Moral Frontier

Notes

Chapter 5: Destroying Utopias: Why Kirk Is a Jerk

Kirk Is a Spoiled Spor(e)t

Mission Log Mayhem

Drugs Are Bad, Mmkay?

They're Not Flourishing!

“This Isn't Life—It's Stagnation”

What's So Important about Self-Actualization?

But Are They Free?

Kirk Is a Jerk

Notes

Chapter 6: “We Are Not Going to Kill Today”: Star Trek and the Philosophy of Peace

Justice, Peace, and a “Right to the Clouds”

“We All Have Our Darker Side”: Causes of Violence

“Some Had to Die That Others Might Live”: Justifications for Violence

“No Kill I”: Alternatives to Violence

“Peace and Long Life”: Star Trek's Message of Peace

Notes

Part II: Beta Quadrant: Dangerous Rivalries

Chapter 7: Klingons: A Cultural Pastiche

First Appearances: “They're Animals!”

“The Way of the Warrior”

“Our Gods Are Dead. Ancient Klingon Warriors Slew Them Millennia Ago”

“I Don't Care What You Look Like, You Are No Klingon!”

“The Federation Is No More Than a Homo sapiens–Only Club”

Notes

Chapter 8: The Borg as Contagious Collectivist Techno-Totalitarian Transhumanists

Cybernetic Servitude

“Resistance Is Futile, You Must Comply”

“We Wish to Improve Ourselves”

“Freedom Is Irrelevant”

Notes

Chapter 9: Assimilation and Autonomy

Autonomy Analyzed

“Voyager Is My Collective”

Evangelical Autonomy

Notes

Chapter 10: Q: A Rude, Interfering, Inconsiderate, Sadistic Pest—on a Quest for Justice?

Solitary, Nasty, Brutish, and Q

Liberty, yet Not Q License

eQual by Nature

Qumanity

Notes

Chapter 11: Federation Trekonomics: Marx, the Federation, and the Shift from Necessity to Freedom

Capitalism Is Most Illogical

Dammit, Marx, I'm a communist, not a Communist!

Set Phasers to “Revolution”

To Boldly Conclude …

Notes

Chapter 12: “The Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Few”: Utilitarianism and Star Trek

“Illogical” Human Emotions

The Limits of Sacrifice

Friendship and Loyalty

Your Orders, Captain?

Notes

Chapter 13: Casuistry in the Final Frontier

Set Phasers to Learn

Boldly Going Where No Genre Can Go

SCIENCE!!! … I Mean, KHAAAN!!!

Is There a Bones in the House?

Star Trek, You Have Been and Shall Always Be My Friend

Live Long and Use Casuistry

Notes

Part III: Delta Quadrant: Questing for Home

Chapter 14: “Today Is a Good Day to Die!” Transporters and Human Extinction

“I Cannae Change the Laws of Physics!”

“Suppose They Went Nowhere?”

“Remember …”

“I'm a Doctor, Not a Soul!”

Would the Real Riker Please Beam Up?

“What's So Damn Troublesome about Not Having Died?”

Notes

Chapter 15: Two Kirks, Two Rikers

(Gregorian) 1694 to (Stardate) 1672

Being “Half a Man,” but Still a Whole “Double”

Two Whole Rikers

Kirks and Rikers and What's in the Bathwater

Notes

Chapter 16: Data, Kant, and Personhood; or, Why Data Is Not a Toaster

“The Measure of a Man”

Pinocchios and Future Datas

Rational Beings as Ends-in-Themselves

Is Data an End in Himself, or Merely a Means to an End?

The Bigger Picture

Notes

Chapter 17: Humans, Androids, Cyborgs, and Virtual Beings: All aboard the Enterprise

To Be a Man, or at Least a Mind

“You Need to Learn to Play”

“Spend Some Time with … Family”

“That Is What It Is to Be Human”

Notes

Chapter 18: Photons (and Drones) Be Free: Phenomenology and the Life-Worlds of Voyager's Doctor and Seven of Nine

“Please State the Nature of the Philosophical Emergency”

“The Fun Will Now Commence”

“Here Begins a New Life”

“Now That I Am an Individual, Those Same Voices Frighten Me”

“I Am One. I Will Adapt”

“Until I Spent a Day in Your Skin, I Never Knew What I Was Missing”

“To All That Makes Us Unique”

Notes

Chapter 19: Vision Quest into Indigenous Space

“Let's Find out What Life-Forms Are Blessed by This Environment”

“A Very Peaceful, Friendly People, Living on A Primitive Level”

“And the Children Shall Lead”

“I Knew the Spirits Have Chosen You to Be a Contrary”

“You Are a Sacred Person Here, Wesley”

“If You Have No Spirits to Guide You, I Fear You Will Lose Your Way”

Notes

Part IV: Gamma Quadrant: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations

Chapter 20: Rethinking the Matter: Organians Are Still Organisms

Even Space Clouds Need Food … and Love

Collapse the Polarity!

The Continuing Voyage

Notes

Chapter 21: “In Search of …” Friendship: What We Can Learn from Androids and Vulcans

“Never Place Friendship above Profit”

“Because the Needs of the One Outweigh the Needs of the Many”

“The Continuing Voyages …”

Notes

Chapter 22: Resistance Is Negligible: In Praise of Cyborgs

A Matrix of Three: Locutus

A Matrix of Three: Hugh

A Matrix of Three: Seven of Nine

A Cyborg Manifesto

Resistance Was Negligible

Notes

Chapter 23: “Who I Really Am”: Odo, Mead, and the Self

“It Doesn't Know How … It's Just a Baby”

Proto-holodeck?

There's No I in Team, but There Is in Win

Is All Growing but a Transition?

Only Change Doesn't Change

Notes

Chapter 24: Is Liberation Ever a Bad Thing? Enterprise's “Cogenitor” and Moral Relativism

“So Much for the Little Training Cruise”

“Keep an Open Mind, Commander”

“Insufficient Facts Always Invites Danger”

“We're Out Here to Meet New Species, Not Tell Them What to Do!”

Trying out One's New Phaser

“Is Your Entire Species So Ill Mannered?”—“Nope … Just Me”

“You Had No Business Interfering with Those People”

Notes

Chapter 25: Resistance Really Is Futile: On Being Assimilated by Our Own Technology

“I Am the Beginning. The End. The One Who Is Many. I Am the Borg.”

“Toward a State of Perfection”

Just Ask Guinan

“Resistance Is Futile”

Notes

Part V: Beyond the Galactic Barrier: The Future as the Final Frontier

Chapter 26: Life on a Holodeck: What Star Trek Can Teach Us about the True Nature of Reality

Of Humans and Holograms

The Holographic Hypothesis

Is Reality an App?

Can't Tell a Soul without a Program

Who's Playing What?

Cogito Ergo Sum?

Notes

Chapter 27: Which Spock Is the Real One? Alternate Universes and Identity

The Search for Which Spock?

Kiri-kin-tha's First Law of Metaphysics

“I Liked Him with the Beard Better”

“I Have Been and Always Shall Be …”

Notes

Chapter 28: “Strangely Compelling”: Romanticism in “The City on the Edge of Forever”

“The Source of All the Time Disturbance”

“Modern Museum Perfection”

“Stone Knives and Bearskins”

“I Am … My Own Ending”

Notes

Chapter 29: It Is a Q of Life: Q as a Nietzschean Figure

To Cultivate One's Individuality

Existential Trials

The Necessity of Q

Notes

Chapter 30: A God Needs Compassion, but Not a Starship: Star Trek's Humanist Theology

“Do You Have Any Gods, Captain?”

“Well, Don't Just Stand There. God's a Busy Man!”

“For All Our Knowledge, All Our Advances, We're Just as Mortal as You Are”

Notes

Chapter 31: “The Human Adventure Is Just Beginning”: Star Trek's Secular Society

“I Never Met a God Before”—“And You Haven't Yet”

“You Don't Understand Something So You Become Fearful”

“We Can All Be Counted upon to Live Down to Our Lowest Impulses”

“This Would Be the Second Time Lucifer Was Cast Out”

Notes

Contributors

Index

EULA

List of Illustration

Chapter c14

Figure 14.1 How a matter–energy–matter (MEM) converter works.

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Part I

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