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. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprint- ing, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, com- puter software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

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This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland For Suzanne, Vanessa, and Susan TO W.W. 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 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 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 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, , 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 . 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, , 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 (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 . Rob Luzecky is Lecturer in the Philosophy Department at Indiana University- Purdue University, Fort Wayne. When he is not busy running a car wash and trying to be the one who knocks, he specializes in the of works of art, with particular reference to the thought of Roman Ingarden. Joseph Mahon , Ph.D. was Lecturer in Philosophy at the National University of Ireland, Galway, until his retirement in 2013. His research and publications have concentrated on topics in Marxism, existentialism, feminism, applied eth- ics, and cultural policy. He is the author of An Introduction to Practical Ethics , Existentialism, Feminism, and Simone de Beauvoir , and Simone de Beauvoir and Her Catholicism . James Edwin Mahon , Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at CUNY-Lehman College. His primary research interests are in moral philosophy, the history of moral philosophy, metaethics, and the inter- section of law and applied ethics. Recent publications include “The Defi nition of Lying and Deception” in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and “Innocent Burdens” in Washington and Lee Law Review . Frank Scalambrino , Ph.D. is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Akron, Ohio’s Polytechnic University, and Associate Editor for the Taylor & Francis journal Social Epistemology . He has interests in social justice and philo- sophical psychology. His more recent publications include Social Epistemology & Technology , Meditations on Orpheus , and Introduction to Ethics: A Primer for the Western Tradition . xvi CONTRIBUTORS

Sara Waller , Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Montana State University, where she teaches Other Animals and Philosophy and Popular Culture. She has published articles on philosophy of mind and cognitive neu- roscience in journals such as Synthese and Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience , as well as on Breaking Bad and House . Her research interests include human and animal minds and measures of intelligence across species. INTRODUCTION: WAL T’S HERO JOURNEY

When the fi nal history of TV has been written, when it is an obsolete art form replaced by god-knows-what 3-D-immersive, virtual-reality, 24-hour-per-day live spectacle to which we all can look forward, the fi rst decades of the twenty- fi rst century will be looked on as the culmination of the medium. The new Golden Age of Television is now —we are living through it. Not only a prolif- eration of channels, but also the reimagining of what it means to be a television network when cable and Internet allow us nearly unlimited viewing options have fueled its emergence. We think that many will likewise come to agree that among the very best offerings of this new Golden Age was Breaking Bad . Breaking Bad is captivating and unusual TV for a variety of reasons. It is a long-form, self-contained, and limited serio-comic drama. It has a strong cast, but it is not, strictly speaking, an ensemble piece—there is one central character who emerges as a consistent, though changing, persona over the course of the show. What is more challenging to the audience is that we are meant to identify with this central character even as he becomes, essentially, a villain. And identify with him many of us certainly do, since Breaking Bad is one of the most loved and highly rated, critically acclaimed TV shows of all time. It is a success story many will likely attempt to recreate, but which sets a bar that may not be fully reached again. Walter White has attained an international mythos, and his alter ego “Heisenberg” is a kind of heroic symbol, plastered on T-shirts like Superman or Iron Man. Given Breaking Bad ’s mythic status, the complexities of the show’s interpretations are varied, offering endless possibilities for discussion within any number of philosophical traditions. Vince Gilligan, the show’s cre- ator, has given numerous interviews about Breaking Bad , each of which pro- vides evidence that he was working through some signifi cant ethical issues in creating and writing it over fi ve seasons. Because the central focus of the show is the gradual descent of an ordinary man into a criminal mastermind, much of the musing that exists about Breaking Bad focuses on ethics, but its moral territory is both deep and broad, and allows for approaches from a variety of ethical traditions. Numerous books and articles have already been published deconstructing, analyzing, and using Breaking Bad as a platform for discussion

xvii xviii INTRODUCTION: WALT’S HERO JOURNEY of topics both obscure and popular, often from a philosophical point of view. Among popular culture artifacts, the show is not unique in this regard, but is especially useful and fruitful as a source of inspiration for philosophical inquiry because of its clear, self-conscious philosophical standpoint. Breaking Bad will provide us all with opportunities for fresh philosophical musings for some time to come. Perhaps what is most intriguing about Walter White’s moral arc is that we are somehow compelled to sympathize with him, to root for him against his foes, even when his foes are the “good guys” and it has become clear that he has fallen completely into the depths of depravity. Vince Gilligan has perhaps perfected the anti -hero’s journey, in stark contrast to the hero’s journey described by Joseph Campbell in his 1949 work, The Hero With A Thousand Faces . 1 The hero takes the basic steps shown in Fig. 1 , which include Call to Adventure, Supernatural Aid, Threshold Guardian, Threshold, Helper Mentor, Temptation, Revelation, Abyss, Death, Rebirth, Transformation, Atonement, and Return. David Corbett includes Walter White in a list of modern anti-heroes and briefl y describes the anti-hero’s journey in Bright Ideas magazine, but Breaking Bad differs from the anti-hero that Corbett traces back to ancient Greek epic to Mad Men and The Sopranos . Corbett sums up Walt this way:

Call to Adventure Supernatural Return Aid

Threshold Atonement Guardian

Transformation Threshold

Helper Rebirth Mentor

Death Temptation

Abyss Revelation

Fig. 1 The hero’s journey INTRODUCTION: WALT’S HERO JOURNEY xix

Like the tragic hero, the antihero stands before a vast, impersonal force—not God or fate, but hypocrisy, or the end of an era. Unlike the tragic hero, he avails himself the weapon of amorality, plumbing the darker aspects of his nature. This provides an excellent means to dramatize the seemingly endless struggle between the proud, resourceful individual and the corrupt society that would gladly crush him. And though his turn toward the darkness may help him survive, it also taints whatever victory he manages to secure. 2

Walt’s fi nal act is not “tainted” any more than Odysseus’s triumph is. Campbell’s description of the hero’s journey is morally neutral. We can see this in vari- ous well-delineated phases of Walt’s transformation in each of these stages. For example, it is arguable that Tuco is a threshold guardian of sorts, and his death in Walt’s inferno is the latter’s crossing of a threshold (other threshold points may be argued, and this analysis could well have been another chapter). And perhaps Gus is best seen as a helper mentor, and Walt’s realization of his expendability and defeat of Gus is his transformation, while his defeat of the white supremacists, scheme for delivering the money to his family, and confes- sion of his true love for what he did as his motivation are all part of his return home and atonement. Walt has, by the end of Breaking Bad in Season Five, taken the hero’s journey in full. Yet heroes in heroic epics do terrible things. Consider that, upon his return, Odysseus murders dozens of Penelope’s suitors, whose attentions Penelope has been fending off as she awaits his return. Or think of Luke Skywalker, a pretty clear-cut hero and one modeled consciously by George Lucas on the hero of Joseph Campbell’s works. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that the mil- lion or so Imperial forces on the fi rst Death Star were all clearly evil, and none of them were mere functionaries with families and children, etc. (a pretty big assumption). As Kevin Smith’s characters in the fi lm Clerks argued, many of the deaths in the second Death Star’s explosion (in Return of the Jedi ) were murders, plain and simple. Contractors who were still hard at work building the destructive weapon were incinerated with Luke’s help in its destruction, though the fi nal shot is Lando Calrissian’s. In any case, it is surely arguable that our hero, Luke Skywalker, is instrumental in the murders of thousands of innocent workers, maybe more. What is it in Walt’s journey that “taints” his fi nal victory? In fact, he has attempted to avoid killing those he deems innocent, though with the notable exception of the poisoning of Brock (who survives). His victims are, more or less, all wrapped up in the dangerous and immoral (or amoral) world of drug manufacturing and dealing. Even Gale Boetticher is not innocent—he knows for whom he works, and what they do, and while he justifi es his actions with a libertarian perspective, he is enmeshed in a dangerous, criminal scheme. We are meant to disdain Walt and to cast judgment on his deeds and moti- vations. He is certainly no role model, but then few epic heroes are. But it is the journey that is important. The possibility of the hero’s transformation and reemergence as someone more than he once was, the ability to overcome and xx INTRODUCTION: WALT’S HERO JOURNEY triumph over death itself, to become the subject of songs and inspiration of some sort—these are the marks of the hero. Walt was a nobody who becomes a legend, his alter-ego’s name whispered in hushed tones, spray painted on walls, and in the real world, iconic and ubiquitous. There is little sense in dis- tinguishing Walt from other heroes whose histories are spotted with violence and death. The world that he leaves behind is not worsened, and the lives of his children improved by his actions. Numerous criminal drug lords are left dead in his wake, as well as a clutch of nasty white supremacists and a couple crooked business people, too. Perhaps Walt is not a hero as such, but his journey is undeniably the hero’s journey, and his appeal to us is similarly undeniable. If he ended the show as merely “evil,” we would have lost interest or felt betrayed. We feel instead a sense of justice in the fi nal act. Whether we admire Walt or not, see him as a hero or anti-hero, we relish something about the satisfying end of the show, a satisfaction few literary works achieve in the context of such moral ambiguity. The editors of Philosophy and Breaking Bad come to bury Walt, though, not to praise him, and to examine his life and the world of Breaking Bad philo- sophically, from a number of different angles. It is rich territory and we would do well to set aside our prejudices. The careful examinations in the following chapters offer fresh perspective on this epic tale, the journey Walt takes, and his victims and triumphs. A number of themes remain constant throughout, in this book and others like it, but fresh takes emerge with each new examination. Each new viewpoint of the show offers similar bounty. The world of Breaking Bad continues in the spin-off Better Call Saul , which will no doubt spawn its own philosophical examinations, but we return here to the source text, the founding documents of that world, and the heroic journey of its protagonist, Walter White.