The horror genre has a long history of terrifying us with distortions of humanity. Some of the monsters are inhuman ("Silence of the Lambs," "Saw," "Hostel"). Some are superhuman ("Nightmare on Elm Street," "Halloween"). Others are subhuman ("The Descent," "The Walking Dead"). The subhuman zombies of AMC’s "The Walking Dead" have reanimated a hot philosophical topic: What does … [Read more...]
Absurd Heroism: Camus and the Real Walking Dead
“Most of us would rather die than live a life where nothing is fundamentally valuable at all, right?” So begins Rachel Robinson-Greene’s depressing foray into a post-zombie world in an article entitled “Better Off Undead." I have been blogging my way through The Walking Dead and Philosophy, a fascinating book that has so far addressed issues involving logic (zombies like the … [Read more...]
Leviathans and Zombies: Social Contracts and the Walking Dead
AMC's The Walking Dead has provided an interesting (and at times gruesome) venue with which to revisit some of the more significant questions about life. I have been blogging my way through The Walking Dead and Philosophy, a fascinating book that has so far addressed issues of logic (zombies like the Walkers are not possible) and the nature of humanity (but philosophical … [Read more...]
Much Undead Ado About Nothing
The debate about what it means to be human has taken an interesting direction following the recent fixation with zombies. The Walking Dead and Philosophy opened with two essays arguing that the consideration of philosophical zombies (P-Zombies) - theoretical beings identical to humans but lacking consciousness, qualia, or sentience - mitigates against a purely materialistic … [Read more...]
How Do You Solve A Problem Like A Zombie?
Even before "The Walking Dead" and "Jersey Shore" became popular, the world had been introduced to the notion of philosophical zombies, theoretical creatures identical to human beings with one tiny distinction - they have no consciousness, qualia, or sentience. Imagine a twin who is identical to you in every possible material way but lacks any type of inner subjective … [Read more...]
An Unexpected Peace: How the Arrival Of Jesus Impacted the World
“Glory to God in the Highest; and on earth, peace, and goodwill to those on whom His favor rests.” __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ After being told that peace had arrived in the form of a child in a local manger, the Jewish shepherds who received this message would have likely … [Read more...]
The Wolves of Mercy Falls
"In the end, it’s a long, cold night and those woods for all of us.” _________________________________________________________________________ Maggie Stiefvater has written a a trilogy entitled The Wolves of Mercy Falls. While her latest, The Scorpio Races, has her on the front pages of literary news, this trilogy has excelled as well. Grace lives in Mercy Falls. As a child, … [Read more...]
Daughter of Smoke and Bone
“You tell me that battling with monsters has made me a monster? Doing business with devils, what has that made you?” _________________________________________________________________________ Universal Pictures has already bought the film rights to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and no wonder: Laini Taylor's book has received exceptional critical accolades: New York Times … [Read more...]
Melancholia: Hollow People, Hollow Worlds
"The human race is just chemical scum on a moderate size planet, orbiting round a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a billion galaxies." - Stephen Hawking, 1995, in "Reality on the Rocks: Beyond our Ken." I saw the movie version of Hawking's perspective yesterday. Melancholia, a highly praised film from Lars Von Trier, follows the imploding lives of the … [Read more...]
"Insurgent": Wars, Factions, and Forgiveness
“You said you were waiting?” says Caleb. “What were you waiting for, exactly?” “For the world to fall apart,” Edward says, “And now it has.” _________________________________________________________________________ Veronica Roth’s Divergent introduced us to a utopia gone terribly wrong. Society has been divided into factions, each focusing on a particular character quality or … [Read more...]
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