Read Arrested Development and Philosophy Online

Authors: J. Jeremy Wisnewski William Irwin Kristopher G. Phillips,J. Jeremy Wisnewski

Arrested Development and Philosophy

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part One: Family First

Chapter 1: Is the Examined Life a Huge Mistake?

The Life of
Arrested Development
Is Not Worth Living

Michael: “The Good One, the Moral One, the Fool.”

Gob: “They’re Laughing with Me, Michael, They’re Laughing with Me.”

Lindsay: “You Call Yourself an Environmentalist, Why Don’t You Go Club a Few Beavers?”

Tobias: “You Blow Hard.”

The Arresting of Happiness

Chapter 2: Kissing Cousins

The Argument from Naturalism

The Yuck Factor, and the Wisdom of Repugnance

Chapter 3: Freudian Arrested Development

Analysts and Therapists for the Bluths

Use Your Allusion: Freud

Perhaps an Attic Shall I Seek—The Unconscious

Freud’s Company Model

Prove It: Baiting the Unconscious

Shémale and Misreadings

Michael, Marta,
Ann
Other Freudian Slips

Motherboy, or the Oedipus Complex

Totem . . . : Boyfights

. . . and Taboo: Les Cousins Dangereux

Pop-Pop Gets Put on the Couch?

Chapter 4: Don’t Know Thyself

Gob Isn’t Just Deceiving Himself

Gob Plays His Roles

Be Yourself, Gob

Gob Makes Huge Mistakes in Good Faith

The Wisdom of Bad Faith

Part Two: A Business Model

Chapter 5: Dr. Fünke’s 100 Percent Natural Good-Time Alienation Solution

Happy Bluthday to You! The Bluth Family History

Marx and Alienation—Or, How to Never Succeed in Life While Really, Really Trying

A Case of “Light Treason”: A Man Who Would Do Anything to Make a Buck

Lucille and Gob

Meet the Fünkes

Michael

Don’t Buy This Book! Down with Capitalism!

Chapter 6: Family First

Product Safety: The Cornballer

Marketing Ethics: The Model Home

Treatment of Employees: The Banana Stand and Child Labor

Treatment of Employees: The Office and the Construction Site

International Business: “Light” Treason

Moral Development Arrested

Chapter 7: Bourgeois Bluths

Your Uncle Doesn’t Not Work Here Anymore: Marx, Labor, and Capital

It’s a Gaming Ship: Consumption and Leisure

There’s Always Money in the Banana Stand: Class Status and Performance

I Thought You Meant of the Things You Eat: the Bluths and the Politics of the Family

The Important Thing Is That You Guys Don’t Lose Focus on Yourselves: Narcissism as a Crisis of Bourgeois Identity

Part Three: Some Huge Mistakes

Chapter 8: What Whitey Isn’t Ready to Hear

You There, Reading This Book . . .

Whatever I Do, I Won’t Quote Hegel

It Ain’t Easy Bein’ White

Stuff Whitey Isn’t Ready to Hear; African-Americany Might Not Be Ready, Either . . .

An Ethics of Identity

Chapter 9: “I Just Blue Myself”

I Christen This Ship the
Lucille

“I’ve Been a Horrible Mother.”

“Blueing” Oneself

The Hearer Doesn’t Just Lay There, Michael, If That’s What You Were Thinking

Chapter 10: To Bias Tobias

How to Solve a Problem Like Tobias

A Gender Enigma

The Man Inside Him

Mister Gay

Tobias, the Blow Hard

Denying the Man Inside Him

Gender Empowerment

Analraping Tobias

Tobias as the Ideal

Chapter 11: I’m Oscar.com

Bland (I mean, Ann), Marta, the Richters, Aristotle, and the Metaphysical Question

Oh My God . . . You’re Oscar. Dot com. [and George Sr. and the Metaphysical and Persistence Problems]

Larry (the Surrogate), Forget-Me-Nows, and Locke’s Criticism of Descartes

Thomas Reid, Gob, and the Problem of the “Forget-Me-Now”

Part Four: The One Where They Do Epistemology

Chapter 12: You Can’t Do Magic

Career Advice from Aristotle

The Virtues of an Illusionist

Why Gob Can’t Do Magic

The Magical World of Gob

Chapter 13: Is Justified True
Bluth
Belief Knowledge?

I Didn’t Even Know That There Was a Cabin . . . He Wasn’t Taking Me To . . .

As You May or May Not Know [JTB] and I Have Hit a Bit of a Rough Patch . . .

First You Dump All Over It, Now You Want to Know How It’s [Solved] . . .

Chapter 14: Bunkers and Balls

Choosing Between Wayne Jarvis and Barry Zuckerkorn

The Lenses of Wayne Jarvis, Barry Zuckerkorn, and George Michael Bluth

Q: War! What Is It Good For?! A: Well, Certainly Not Buster Bluth

How to Choose Between Bunkers and Balls

Who Knows What Balls Look Like?

In the Absence of Opie (Sorry, Ron)

Part Five: Solid As Iraq: Politics and Ethics Arrested

Chapter 15: No Touching! George Sr.’s Brush with Treason

“Do You Know How They Punish Treason?”—First Time . . .—“I’ve Never Heard of a Second!”

A Company Whose Founder May Be on Trial for Treason: The Case Against George Sr.

“He’s Guilty, Michael, of Medium to Heavy Treason”: The Degrees of Treason

“We Do Need to Stick Together Like a Family on This”: Why Treason Is Wrong

“I’ve Made a Huge Mistake”

Chapter 16: “I’ve Made a Huge Mistake”

“And I’m Not Afraid to Make Mistakes. Or Have You Forgotten to Read This . . .”

“Nobody Makes a Fool out of Our Family without My Help.”

“. . . She Keeps Saying That God Is Going to Show Me a Sign. The . . . Something of My Ways. Wisdom?”

Chapter 17: The Comedy of Contradiction

Seemingly Deceptive: Lindsay’s Lies

A Jealous Gob

Think of the Children

“I’m Not Sure if My Ethics Teacher Would Love It if I Cheated on My Essay”

Going Both Ways

Beyond the Never-Nude: Nietzsche’s Man of the Future

Contradiction and the Form of Comedy: There’s Always Money in the Banana Stand

Part Six: And On The Epilogue . . .

Chapter 18: And Now the Story of a Wealthy Family Who Lost Everything

Narrating the Bluths: “A Clear-Cut Situation with the Promise of Comedy”

“And That’s Why You Always Leave a Note”: What Lessons Can We Learn From Our Narratives?

“And That’s How You Narrate a Story”—What We Tell, What We Are

Contributors

Index

The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series

Series Editor: William Irwin

South Park and Philosophy

Edited by Robert Arp

Metallica and Philosophy

Edited by William Irwin

Family Guy and Philosophy

Edited by J. Jeremy Wisnewski

The Daily Show and Philosophy

Edited by Jason Holt

Lost and Philosophy

Edited by Sharon Kaye

24 and Philosophy

Edited by Jennifer Hart Weed, Richard Davis, and Ronald Weed

Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy

Edited by Jason T. Eberl

The Office and Philosophy

Edited by J. Jeremy Wisnewski

Batman and Philosophy

Edited by Mark D. White and Robert Arp

House and Philosophy

Edited by Henry Jacoby

Watchmen and Philosophy

Edited by Mark D. White

X-Men and Philosophy

Edited by Rebecca Housel and J. Jeremy Wisnewski

Terminator and Philosophy

Edited by Richard Brown and Kevin Decker

Heroes and Philosophy

Edited by David Kyle Johnson

Twilight and Philosophy

Edited by Rebecca Housel and J. Jeremy Wisnewski

Final Fantasy and Philosophy

Edited by Jason P. Blahuta and Michel S. Beaulieu

Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy

Edited by Richard Brian Davis

Iron Man and Philosophy

Edited by Mark D. White

True Blood and Philosophy

Edited by George Dunn and Rebecca Housel

Mad Men and Philosophy

Edited by James South and Rod Carveth

30 Rock and Philosophy

Edited by J. Jeremy Wisnewski

The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy

Edited by Gregory Bassham

The Ultimate Lost and Philosophy

Edited by Sharon Kaye

Green Lantern and Philosophy

Edited by Jane Dryden and Mark D. White

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Philosophy

Edited by Eric Bronson

Arrested Development and Philosophy

Edited by Kristopher Phillips and J. Jeremy Wisnewski

Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley and Sons. All rights reserved

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Published simultaneously in Canada

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ISBN 978-0-470-57559-8 (paper); ISBN 978-1-118-14609-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-14626-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-14627-9 (ebk)

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