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Star Wars and Philosophy: More Powerful than You Can Possibly Imagine (Popular Culture and Philosophy #12)
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 volum...more
The essays in this volum...more
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
March 23rd 2005
by Open Court
(first published March 10th 2005)
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This is a fine book connecting the pop culture classic "Star Wars" movies with philosophy. Most of the articles are fascinating and allow Star Wars fans to see the movies, and philosophy, in a new light and philosophy enthusiasts to see the movies as something other than pop culture drudgery. This book could also serve as a great introduction to a high school or lower level college class on philosophy as many of the great philosophical minds (William James, Plato, Nietzsche, etc.) are referenced...more
Star Wars & Philosophy edited by Kevin S. Decker and Jason T. Eberl is a collection of philosophical essays that draw on the Star Wars movies for examples and the philosophies of St. Augustine, Sartre, and others. The collection is moderately well done in some parts and blatantly falls short in others, with one particular essay not using secondary sources to back up its arguments at all and leaving readers to beg the question whether Trekkies can write about Star Wars at all. The essays draw...more
Really interesting and Promising, there are some Great contributions by the more enthusiastic writers, not all of them shared the same enthusiasm or understanding of the Series and kind of just drift away from the star wars universe. When I Think Star Wars and Philosophy I tend to Focus on the Original Trilogy which in my opinion had the most appropriate Content for the Book, but they tend to use the new trilogy quite extensively. in overall is a Great Read for any Star Wars Fan.
You could probably write a pretty good essay about Jedi philosophy and how it relates to various philosophies from history. Unfortunately, it turns out that you can't write 17 coherent, readable essays about 3 good-great movies and three mediocre-bad movies (After the 6th essay that references Yoda's famous 'do or do not, there is no try,' you'll with you'd picked a philosophy book with more subject matter to choose from.) Many of these essays are simple overviews of a particular philosophers id...more
i recently rewatched all 6 Star Wars films and was once again struck by the mythology of it, which has led to a current obsession of all things star wars and joseph campbell (oh, joey campbell, i love you). this was an excellent read of philosophical ideas through the lens of star wars - i learned a lot more about heigl, nietche, etc. from this book than my intro to philosophy course in college.
With seventeen essays by different contributors, this book offers an interesting look at different philosopher's thoughts using the Star Wars saga as their point of departure. The use of Lucas' film world provides an interesting thematic approach. Essays look at the Zen aspect of the Force and the Jedi, Augustinian free will in the context of the prophecies relating to Anakin and Luke, a consideration of Hegel's Philosophy of Spirit in the contect of The Empire Strikes Back, and other topics. No...more
This mostly compares Star Wars to various philosophies that have been written about in our world. It would be all right if it weren't also a colection of essays by different philosophers, so there is nothing that binds the essays together except that they are about Star Wars.
Aug 04, 2011
Tanya
added it
I love this book series. Great stuff which I intend to use next year. The level of difficulty in comprehension varies a bit, and some contributors drift too far from the Star Wars connection, but overall, great book!
Star Wars and Philosophy turned out to be my least favorite book of the Blackwell series so far. Some of that is the fault of the material. Star Wars is just not as nuanced as some of the other choices. Also, there was too much of a focus on the final three movies (centered on Anakin), which were personally not my favorites and, in my opinion, did not do a good job of realizing their themes.
There were some excellent individual essays in here. "Stoicism in the Stars", "The Aspiring Jedi's Handbo...more
There were some excellent individual essays in here. "Stoicism in the Stars", "The Aspiring Jedi's Handbo...more
I really enjoyed the book. One poignant point was that not all Sith are wholly evil and not all Jedi are wholly good.
Nov 30, 2012
James Ogunbola
added it
It was a decent book. It really made me think about the characters in Star wars.
I thought it was great.
If you like philosophy and you like Star Wars then this is for you. Each essay parallels Star Wars themes with movements or fields of philosophy. The level of philosophical discussion is introductory level. This would make a great Freshman year intro to philosophy tool: show the movies, read the major pieces in philosophy, and tie them out with this book.
I do find myself returning to some essays now and again. It has a permanent place on my iPhone kindle as reference material.
Of the Popular Culture and Philosophy books, I think this is the one I like least. For more, follow the link:
http://satia.blogspot.com/2009/09/sta...
http://satia.blogspot.com/2009/09/sta...
so now that i finished reading the "house and philosophy" book, i'm on to "star wars and philosophy." i have many of these books to get through, so maybe i should read them more than just while i'm cooking....
...i wish this had been better...it seemed like star wars would be a great vehicle for philosophy, but in the end, it was overall kind of disappointing....
...i wish this had been better...it seemed like star wars would be a great vehicle for philosophy, but in the end, it was overall kind of disappointing....
Mar 13, 2011
Brian Rashap
added it
One of the great things that my son, Ethan, and I share is our love for Star Wars... we've been listening to many Star Wars books on audio in the car (when the girls aren't around). I came across this when I was looking through Philosophy titles. It's pretty deep at time...but also quiet intriguing.
May 06, 2012
Jay Little
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
pleasant-surprises
As a fan of both Star Wars and philosophy, I found this book very interesting. The quality of the different submissions varies greatly, but overall, each chapter offers its own unique look at an aspect of Star Wars through the filter of philosophy. Or perhaps it's the other way around.
An interesting fsing of traditional philosophy concepts with their portrayl in the star wars movies. Some really interesting reads in there, alittle bit tacky with over referencing star wars, but not too much. It is a star wars philosophy book in the end :D
Star Wars....philosophy....what's not to like? Other books about some show and philosophy have been written (the one with Dr. House isn't bad), but I find this one the best. Of course, it's hard to top Star Wars in terms of really great movies as well.
A look beneath all the lightsabers and photon torpedoes. A in depth look at motivations and morals. The evil Dark jedi seem to tell the truth alot but.....the Good jedi tell lies all the time.
Really cool philosophy cliff notes. Okay, so you probably needed to see all six movies multiple times to really like the book. That's okay. We are legion.
I enjoyed this book. It managed to bring up several points that I have never thought about. A good read if in the mood.
Enjoyed them when I was a child, and now I enjoy them still + understand it's deeper meaning.
I'm enjoying this book which combines two of my interests.
Wow. Geeks with PhD's. And they are making complete sense.
More Star Wars, less philosophy...
May 17, 2013
Brandon Bishop
marked it as to-read
May 17, 2013
Christie
marked it as to-read
May 16, 2013
Stacey Mackin
marked it as to-read
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Dec 01, 2012 08:00pm