Read Game of Thrones and Philosophy Online

Authors: William Irwin Henry Jacoby

Game of Thrones and Philosophy

CONTENTS

Foreword

A Raven from House Wiley

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part One: “You Win or you Die”

Chapter 1: Maester Hobbes Goes to King’s Landing

You are Selfish and Dangerous

The Realm Needs a King

Hobbes Takes the Maester’s Chain

The Horrors of War

Robert’s Rebellion

Lion and Direwolf, Dragon and Leviathan

Chapter 2: It is a Great Crime to Lie to a King

Lying and Deceiving in Westeros

Lord Stark’s Lies

Is Lying Worse than Deceiving?

Betraying Trust and Shifting Responsibility

The Ruses of War

Bad Consequences and Broken Oaths

Chapter 3: Playing the Game of Thrones

Virtù and Fortuna

The Downfall of Kings

Morality and Dependency

Always Wear a Mask

Those Who Make Their Own Luck

A Final Lesson

Chapter 4: The War in Westeros and Just War Theory

The Justness of Resorting to War

Just Cause

Right Intention

Proper Authority

Last Resort

Probability of Success

Proportionality of Loss versus Gain

Justness in Conducting War

Discrimination between Combatants and Noncombatants

Appropriate Treatment of Prisoners of War

No Reprisals

Respect the Rights of the State’s Own Citizens

A Just War?

Part Two: “The Things I Do For Love”

Chapter 5: Winter Is Coming!

“Is the Honorable Person Happy?”

“Is the Devious Person Happy?”

“I Do Not Know Which of You I Pity Most”

“Life is Not a Song, Sweetling. You May Learn That One Day to Your Sorrow”

“When You Play the Game of Thrones, You Win or You Die. There Is No Middle Ground”

What Game of Thrones Teaches Us about Happiness

Chapter 6: The Death of Lord Stark

“If the Wicked Do Not Fear the King’s Justice Then You Have Put the Wrong Man in Office”

“The Day Will Come When you Need Them to Respect you, Even Fear you a Little”

“Most Men Would Rather Deny a Hard Truth Than Face It”

Threats to the Realm

“The Madness of Mercy”

Chapter 7: Lord Eddard Stark, Queen Cersei Lannister

“You Never Could Lie for Love nor Honor, Ned Stark”

The Madness of Mercy—The Price of Honesty

“When you Play the Game of Thrones, You Win or You Die”: The Rewards of Egoism

“And Pray That He is the Man I Think He is”

“How Are you Any Different from Robert, or Me, or Jaime?”

Chapter 8: It Would Be a Mercy

“Give Me a Good Clean Death”

“You Love Your Children, Do you Not?”

“When Will He Be as He Was?”

“This is Not Life”

Part Three: “Winter is Coming”

Chapter 9: Wargs, Wights, and Wolves That Are Dire

What is It Like to Be a Direwolf?

Wargs and Consciousness

Descartes and Direwolves

Wargs Again

What about the Wights?

Back to the Wights

Chapter 10: Magic, Science, and Metaphysics in A Game of Thrones

Let’s Get Physical

Science in A Game of Thrones

Magic and Causation

Science and Magic in Westeros

Magic and Metaphysics

Chapter 11: “You Know Nothing, Jon Snow”

Not Knowing That You Know Nothing

What Even a Blind Man Can See

Calibrating Confidence in What We (Don’t) Know

Justified True Belief

A Trip to King’s Landing

Back to the Wall

The Horn of Winter

Chapter 12: “Why is the World So Full of Injustice?”

Is the Problem of Evil Really a Problem?

But What is Evil?

Augustine and Catelyn Defend the Faith of the Seven

Problems with the Solutions

David Hume and the Impotence of the Old Gods

Blaming the Gods for Natural Evil

R’hllor and Natural Evil

Gods Don’t Care about Men

Part Four: “The Man Who Passes the Sentence should Swing the Sword”

Chapter 13: Why Should Joffrey Be Moral If He Has Already Won the Game of Thrones?

The World Will Be Exactly As You Want It to Be (“Lord Snow”)

A Man with Great Ambition and No Morals, I Wouldn’t Bet against Him (“Fire and Blood”)

The Truth Will Be What You Make It (“Lord Snow”)

You’ve a Long Way to Travel and In Bad Company (“Fire and Blood”)

Our Way is the Old Way (“Winter is Coming”)

I Must Be One of the Few Men in This City Who Doesn’t Want to Be King (“Fire and Blood”)

Chapter 14: The Moral Luck of Tyrion Lannister

The Virtues and Vices of Tyrion Lannister

It’s Out of the King’s Hand’s Hands

The Many Faces of Moral Luck

Kant to the Rescue?

Moral Luck and the Last Laugh

Chapter 15: Dany’s Encounter with the Wild

To Each His Own?

Moral Relativism

The Diversity of Ethical Codes

Love and Incest

Moral Relativism

The Dothraki Wedding Ceremony

Pillage and Plunder

The Morality of the Seven Kingdoms and Beyond

Chapter 16: “There Are No True Knights”

The Dark Side of Chivalry

Chivalry is Misguided

Sansa and her Songs

The Death of Modern Chivalry: Good Riddance

Women, Not Wards: What Has Humanity Made of the Human Female?

Part Five: “Stick them With the Pointy End”

Chapter 17: Fate, Freedom, and Authenticity in A Game of Thrones

The Freedom to Be or Not to Be

Que Sera, Sera (What Will Be, Will Be)

Fulfilling Fate

Becoming Who You Are

Chapter 18: No One Dances the Water Dance

Virtues and the Good Life

Martial Arts and Virtues

The Water Dance

Zen and the Sword Master from Braavos

Ninjutsu and the Faceless Men

The Faceless Dance of Virtue

Chapter 19: The Things I Do For Love

What is Game Theory?

House Rules

Eros’s Aim

The Nature of the Game

The Dwarf’s Gamble: Non-Zero-Sum Games and Repeated Play

Through the Eyes of Love

Chapter 20: Stop the Madness!

The Archaeologist and the Mad Fool

Pointing a Finger at the Crazies

Meet the Mayor of Crazytown

We Had to Murder the Mad Murderer!

Technologies of the Self

Am I Sane? I Think I Am. . . . I Think I Am. . . . I Think I Am. . .
.

Everything is Dangerous

Contributors

Index

The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series

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

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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