Editors:
- Presents a philosophically rigorous yet engaging and accessible approach
- Engages a wide range of philosophical entrance points including an investigation of aspects of character development, morality, and law in the show
- Presents an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from psychological and literary perspectives as well as philosophical
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Table of contents (16 chapters)
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Front Matter
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“We Tried to Poison You”: Breaking Evil
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Front Matter
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“I Am the One Who Knocks”: The Shadow of Death and the Meaning of Life
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Front Matter
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“I Will Put You Under the Jail”: The Tragedy of Breaking Bad
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Front Matter
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“I Did It for Me”: Morality, Mastery and Meth
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Front Matter
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Becoming Jesse James: Breaking Bad’s Challenge to Philosophy
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Front Matter
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About this book
This volume considers the numerous philosophical ideas and arguments found in and inspired by the critically acclaimed series Breaking Bad. This show garnered both critical and popular attention for its portrayal of a cancer-stricken, middle-aged, middle-class, high school chemistry teacher’s drift into the dark world of selling methamphetamine to support his family. Its characters, situations, and aesthetic raise serious and familiar philosophical issues, especially related to ethics and morality. The show provokes a bevy of rich questions and discussion points, such as: What are the ethical issues surrounding drugs? What lessons about existentialism and fatalism does the show present? How does the show grapple with the concept of the end ‘justifying’ the means? Is Walt really free not to ‘break bad’? Can he be redeemed? What is the definition and nature of badness (or evil) itself? Contributors address these and other questions as they dissect the legacy of the show and discuss its contributions to philosophical conversations.
Editors and Affiliations
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Eastern Washington University, Cheney, USA
Kevin S. Decker
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Comision Nacional de Bioetica, Mexico
David R. Koepsell
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Independent Scholar, Overland Park, USA
Robert Arp
About the editors
David R. Koepsell has been a tenured associate professor of philosophy at the Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, and a Visiting Professor at UNAM, Instituto de Filosoficas and the Unidad Posgrado, Mexico.
Robert Arp is the author of Scenario Visualization: An Evolutionary Account of Creative Problem Solving and co-author of Philosophy DeMYSTiFieD, Critical Thinking: An Introduction to Reasoning Well, 2nd Edition, and What's Good on TV? Teaching Ethics through Television. He is also editor of 1001 Ideas That Changed the Way We Think, South Park and Philosophy, Tattoos-Philosophy for Everyone: I Ink, Therefore I Am, Psych and Philosophy, Homeland and Philosophy, and The Devil and Philosophy.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Philosophy and Breaking Bad
Editors: Kevin S. Decker, David R. Koepsell, Robert Arp
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40343-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-40342-7Published: 15 December 2016
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-40665-7Published: 22 December 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-40343-4Published: 23 November 2016
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XX, 266
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Philosophy of Man, American Culture, Screen Studies