May 5Hungry for Knowledge: Philosophizing in the Wilderness with YellowjacketsThe Showtime series Yellowjackets is an epistemological investigation of the unknown. What happens when our knowledge of the world reaches its bounds, and we no longer have ample experience to discern proper action? Survival in the world requires that we know “what the world is like” and can predict occurrences…The Yellowjackets9 min read
Jan 4Whistling Into the Void: The Epistemological Horror of The Empty Man(Warning: This philosophical exploration of The Empty Man contains spoilers!) The Empty Man plumes the dark side of human belief formation and knowledge construction. First time director, David Prior, narrativizes ideas and casts them as philosophical fable. The Empty Man is horror epistemology for the modern world. In philosophy, epistemology…Philosophy10 min read
Jul 5, 2021I Haunt, Therefore I Am: Cartesian Dualism in The Conjuring MoviesExploring the Cartesian Metaphysics of The Conjuring Universe. The Conjuring world is one filled with ghosts, demons, ominous hand clappings, and violent possessions. It is a panorama in which the physical world of the everyday is permeated by the invisible world of minds and beings that normally elude the senses…The Conjuring9 min read
Jun 14, 2021Parasite and Moral LuckParasite is a profound, sometimes shocking, meditation on class, capitalism, and family. It is also a beautifully rendered portrait of the tragedy of bad moral luck. Moral luck is a philosophical concept that acknowledges the incongruity between several deep-rooted moral intuitions. One intuition is that I can, and should, be…Ethics9 min read
Jan 21, 2021Drop Dead: Russian Doll EthicsLeslye Headland’s Netflix escapade, Russian Doll, is a darkly surreal adventure in which the main protagonist(s) die over and over again. The plot unfolds as a narrative puzzle, spinning its web to ensnare its characters inside the day of their own deaths. They die only to be born again a…Russian Doll Netflix8 min read
Dec 3, 2020Watching Philosophy in The Good PlaceFor fans of The Good Place, especially those who either teach philosophy or who enjoy the geeky pleasures of reading obscure philosophical works, the brainy Chidi Anagonye is a sitcom hero made in philosophical heaven. From the first season of The Good Place onward, philosophy nerds had one pressing question…The Good Place6 min read
Jul 30, 2020The Platform: Food as WeaponThe Spanish film, The Platform (2019, directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia) is a political allegory, which is to say, it is a philosophical thought experiment dramatized. Philosophy has long adopted the thought experiment as a means of getting to an essential idea by stripping away the superfluous. It is not meant…Utilitarianism9 min read
Jul 8, 2020Chasing Goodness in The Good PlaceThe Good Place poses a central moral question: can people become “good” simply by trying hard enough? In addition to exploring differing answers to this question, the show adds its own moral imperative, namely, that whether or not we can become good people, part of our obligation to one another…The Good Place8 min read
Jun 16, 2020On Vampires and Virtue: Getting Ethical with Aristotle and BuffyEveryone believes they are a good person, or at the very least, everyone wants to believe they are a good person, and Buffy is no exception. Buffy strives for moral goodness and many of the conflicts at the heart of Buffy the Vampire Slayer concern ethical dilemmas and the choices…Philosophy8 min read
May 19, 2020O Buffy, Where Art Thou?The world needs a new kind of hero right now. We need someone who has flaws, understands trauma, realizes that no matter how bad things might be, they can always get a little worse, or even a lot worse. We need someone who is comfortable with death; someone who doesn’t…Buffy The Vampire Slayer9 min read
