Philosophy and Breaking Bad Kevin S. Decker • David R. Koepsell • Robert Arp Editors Philosophy and Breaking Bad Editors Kevin S. Decker Robert Arp Eastern Washington University Independent Scholar Cheney , USA Overland Park , Kansas, USA David R. Koepsell Comision Nacional de Bioetica , Mexico ISBN 978-3-319-40342-7 (Hardcover) ISBN 978-3-319-40343-4 (eBook) ISBN 978-3-319-40665-7 (Softcover) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40343-4 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016959579 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. 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MY STAR, MY PERFECT SILENCE vii CONTENTS Part 1 “We Tried to Poison You”: Breaking Evil 1 1 What’s Stopping Me: Breaking Bad and Virtue Ethics 3 Jen Baker 2 Eichmann in Albuquerque 17 Karen Adkins 3 Empathy and Evil: Drug-Dealing Murderers Are People Too 35 Charlene Elsby and Rob Luzecky Part 2 “I Am the One Who Knocks”: The Shadow of Death and the Meaning of Life 45 4 In the Shadow of the Sickness Unto Death: Walter White’s Transformation into the Knight of Meth 47 Frank Scalambrino 5 Death Is Easy If You’re Dead 63 Christopher Ketcham 6 Cosmic Justice in Breaking Bad : Can Sociopaths and Antiheroes Lead Meaningful Lives? 77 Kimberly Blessing ix x CONTENTS 7 Law and Morality in Breaking Bad : The Aesthetics of Justice 93 David Koepsell Part 3 “I Will Put You Under the Jail”: The Tragedy of Breaking Bad 107 8 The Crumbling Patriarchy and Triumphant Feminist Ethic of Care in Breaking Bad 109 Leigh Kolb 9 What Bad Is Not: Breaking Bad , Apophatic and Dramaturgic Continua from Creator to Viewer, and a Poetics of the Philosophy of Religion 123 Jesse Abbot Part 4 “I Did It for Me”: Morality, Mastery and Meth 141 10 Recovering Lost Moral Ground: Can Walt Make Amends? 143 James Edwin Mahon and Joseph Mahon 11 (Im)Morality in Action 161 Travis Dyk and Adam Barkman 12 The Transformation of Walter White: A Case Study in Bad Faith 175 Leslie A. Aarons 13 Breaking Bonds: White Lines of Love and Hate 191 Sara Waller Part 5 Becoming Jesse James: Breaking Bad’s Challenge to Philosophy 199 14 Hatred: Walter White Is Doing It All Wrong 201 Kevin Guilfoy CONTENTS xi 15 “We Are Responsible to All for All”: An Intersubjective Analysis of Breaking Bad 217 Sheridan Hough 16 Theater of the Absurd: Breaking Bad as Edifying Philosophy 233 Kevin S. Decker Bibliography 249 Index 261 CONTRIBUTORS Leslie A. Aarons , Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Philosophy at City University of New York LaGuardia Community College. She specializes in public philoso- phy, popular culture, and environmental ethics. Her more recent publications include “Underwood as Übermensch: A Postmodern Play of Power” in House of Cards and Philosophy: Underwood’s Republic and “When a Charming Woman Speaks” in Sons of Anarchy and Philosophy: Brains before Bullets . She conducts specialized classes in environmental ethics and is currently writing a book on the subject. J. I. Abbot , Ph.D. is Professor of English and Philosophy at Tunxis Community College in Farmington, CT. A poet, essayist, and translator with a focus on comparative Indo–Tibetan philosophies and their nexus to the philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, and poetics, Abbot completed an MFA in Literary Arts at Brown University, and his undergraduate work in Languages and Literature at Bard College. His collection of poems, An Argument of Dreams , will be published in 2017 by La Bohème, an imprint affi liated with the literary and political journal Peripheral Surveys . Karen Adkins , Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy at Regis University in Denver, Colorado. She has published articles in Social Epistemology , Philosophy in the Modern World , and Synergies . Her book, Knowledge Underground: Gossip, Hypocrisy, Power , is forthcoming from Palgrave MacMillan. Robert Arp , Ph.D. is a research analyst working on models and simulations for the US Army at Ft. Leavenworth. He has interests in philosophy and popular culture. His more recent publications include What’s Good on TV? Understanding Ethics through Television , a second edition of Critical Thinking: An Introduction to Reasoning Well , and 1001 Quotations to Enlighten, Entertain, and Inspire . See robertarp.com . Jennifer Baker , Ph.D. is Associate Professor at the College of Charleston in the Department of Philosophy. She looks to what is relevant in ancient accounts of xiii xiv CONTRIBUTORS virtue for use today. Her most recent work is the edited collection, Economics and the Virtues , for Oxford University Press. Adam Barkman , Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Redeemer University College (Canada). He is the author of fi ve books and the co-editor of another four, many of which have to do with the intersection between popular culture and philosophical themes. His most recent book is Making Sense of Islamic Art & Architecture . Kimberly Blessing , Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy at SUNY Buffalo State. Her interests include the meaning of life, philosophy of religion, existentialism, and early modern philosophy. She has recently written philosophy and popular philosophy on Downton Abbey and Girls . Kevin S. Decker , Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy at Eastern Washington University. He is the author of a number of published articles on American and Continental philosophy, applied ethics, political philosophy, and has edited or co-edited more than ten books in philosophy and popular culture. He is the author of Who is Who? The Philosophy of Doctor Who (I.B. Tauris, 2013). Travis Dyk is an independent scholar who is interested in law, philosophy, and fi lm. Charlene Elsby , Ph.D. is Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne, specializing in Ancient phi- losophy and realist phenomenology. She recently edited a volume, Essays on Aesthetic Genesis (with Aaron Massecar), published by University Press of America (2016). She is currently working on an analysis of how Aristotelian concepts found their way into the foundations of early phenomenology. Kevin Guilfoy , Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Carroll University in Wisconsin. His primary work is in medieval philosophy and social and politi- cal philosophy. He is co-editor of the Cambridge Companion to Peter Abelard and contributor to Mad Men and Philosophy , The Philosophy of Viagra , and Terry Pratchett and Philosophy . Sheridan Hough , Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy at the College of Charleston. She has also taught in the Honors College at the University of Houston and served as NEH Professor of the Humanities at Colgate University. Hough is the author of Nietzsche’s Noontide Friend: the Self as Metaphoric Double and her most recent books are Kierkegaard’s Dancing Tax Collector: Faith, Finitude, and Silence and the novel Mirror’s Fathom , a work that explores the Kierkegaardian self. Her fi rst volume of poetry, The Hide , was published by Inleaf Press in 2007. You can fi nd more information about Sheridan at http://houghs.people.cofc. edu . Christopher Ketcham , Ph.D. teaches business and ethics for the University of Houston downtown. His research interests are risk management, applied ethics, social justice, and East–West comparative philosophy. With Dr. Jean Paul CONTRIBUTORS xv Louisot, he has co-edited Enterprise Risk Management: Issues and Cases and Enterprise Risk Management: Developing and Implementing . He has chapters in Reconsidering the Meaning in Life and Commercial Space Exploration: Ethics, Policy and Governance . He has recently published articles in Philosophical Inquires , Per la fi losofi a , Leadership and the Humanities , and Journal of the Philosophy of Life . David Koepsell has a Ph.D. in Philosophy as well as a J.D. from the University at Buffalo. He has authored numerous scholarly books and articles, practiced law, and was Associate Professor of Philosophy at Delft University of Technology before becoming the Director of Strategic Initiatives for the National Commission of Bioethics (CONBIOETICA) in Mexico. He is also Advisor to the Rector at Universidad Autonoma Metropolitan—Xochimilco. See davidko- epsell.com . Leigh Kolb is an instructor at a community college in rural Missouri, where she teaches English, journalism, and mass media. She has written fi lm and TV criti- cism for Vulture and Bitch magazines. She wrote about the feminism of Breaking Bad at Bitch Flicks , and her chapter, “Mothers of Anarchy: Power, Control, and Care in the Feminine Sphere,” appeared in Sons of Anarchy and Philosophy: Brains before Bullets .