The Simpsons and Philosophy the D'oh! of Homer Popular Culture and Philosophy, Volume 02 Edited by William Irwin, Mark T
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The Simpsons and Philosophy The D'oh! of Homer Popular Culture and Philosophy, Volume 02 Edited by William Irwin, Mark T. Conard, and Aeon J. Skoble a.b.e-book v3.0 / Notes at EOF (Annotations appear at the end of each essay) Back Cover: No less an authority than Homer Simpson himself has declared: "Cartoons don't have any deep meaning. They're just stupid drawings that give you a cheap laugh." Don't have a cow, man. Here comes a squadron of erudite scholars with the guts to challenge even Homer's pessimistic view of his family's historic plight. Does Homer Simpson really exhibit Aristotelian virtues? Can we learn from Maggie about the value of silence? Is Bart the kind of individual Nietzsche was trying to warn us about? How does Lisa illuminate American ambivalence toward intellectuals? Here we can find out about irony and the meaning of life, the politics of the nuclear family, Marxism in Springfield, the elusiveness of happiness, popular parody as a form of tribute, and why we need animated TV shows. As if all that weren't enough, this book actually contains the worst philosophy essay ever. Now that we have The Simpsons and Philosophy, we can all rub our hands together and say, in a slow, sinister, breathy voice: "Excellent. ." "Most scholars of mass art hold themselves at a distance from their subject. The authors in this volume really immerse themselves in The Simpsons, and the result is this absolutely unique book. Go for it!" -- Professor David Carrier, Carnegie Mellon University "Bill Irwin and his colleagues have done it again: they have produced a terrific volume. Not only is The Simpsons and Philosophy highly educational, it enhances the viewing and re-viewing of the Simpsons episodes, and sheds a new light on the series." -- Professor Per Broman, Butler University, Indianapolis "What a great book! The chapters are by turns fun, profound, and instructive. I recommend it to everyone, whether already a Simpsons fan or not. You'll be surprised at what wisdom lurks in these pages." -- Tom Morris, Author of If Aristotle Ran General Motors "The Simpsons and Philosophy is a great place to begin any program in Simpsons studies. A serious look at a funny subject." -- Mark I. Pinsky, Author of The Gospel According to The Simpsons William Irwin, Mark T. Canard, and Aeon J. Skoble all contributed to Seinfeld and Philosophy (2000), which Irwin edited. Irwin is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at King's College, Pennsylvania, and author of Intentionalist Interpretation (1999). Dr. Conard has published scholarly articles on Kant, Nietzsche, and Quentin Tarantino. Dr. Skoble teaches philosophy at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and has co-edited Political Philosophy: Essential Selections (1999). Popular Culture and Philosophy General Editor: William Irwin Volume 01 Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing (2000) Edited by William Irwin Volume 02 The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer (2001) Edited by William Irwin, Mark T. Conard, and Aeon J. Skoble Volume 03 The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real (2002) Edited by William Irwin In Preparation: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy (2003) Edited by James B. South The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy (2003) Edited by Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson Woody Allen and Philosophy (2004) Edited by Mark T. Conard and Aeon J. Skoble Volume 2 in the series, Popular Culture and Philosophy To order books from Open Court, call toll free 1-800-815-2280. Chapter 11 was originally published in Political Theory 27 (1999), pp. 734-749, and is reprinted here by permission of the author and Sage Publications, Inc. Cover image of The Simpsons © 2001 by Bongo Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Simpsons © and ® Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Open Court Publishing Company is a division of Carus Publishing Company. Copyright © 2001 by Carus Publishing Company Fourteenth printing 2002 Fifteenth printing 2002 Sixteenth printing 2003 Seventeenth printing 2003 Eighteenth printing 2003 Nineteenth printing 2003 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, Open Court Publishing Company, a division of Carus Publishing Company, 315 Fifth Street, P.O. Box 300, Peru, Illinois, 61354-0300. Printed and bound in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Simpsons and philosophy : the d'oh! of Homer / edited by William Irwin, Mark Conard, and Aeon Skoble. p. cm. -- (Popular culture and philosophy ; v.2) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8126-9433-3 (alk. paper) 1. Philosophy -- Miscellanea. 2. Simpsons. (Television program) -- Miscellanea. I. Irwin, William, 1970- II. Conard, Mark, 1965- III. Skoble, Aeon J. IV Series B68 .S55 2001 100 -- dc21 00-069897 Dedicated to Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure (whom you might remember from such TV shows as The Simpsons) Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Meditations on Springfield? Part I - The Characters 1. Homer and Aristotle RAJA HALWANI 2. Lisa and American Anti-intellectualism AEON J. SKOBLE 3. Why Maggie Matters: Sounds of Silence, East and West ERIC BRONSON 4. Marge's Moral Motivation GERALD J. ERION and JOSEPH A. ZECCARDI 5. Thus Spake Bart: On Nietzsche and the Virtues of Being Bad MARK T. CONARD Part II - Simpsonian Themes 6. The Simpsons and Allusion: "Worst Essay Ever" WILLIAM IRWIN and J.R. LOMBARDO 7. Popular Parody: The Simpsons Meets the Crime Film DEBORAH KNIGHT 8. The Simpsons, Hyper-Irony, and the Meaning of Life CARL MATHESON 9. Simpsonian Sexual Politics DALE E. SNOW and JAMES J. SNOW Part III - I Didn't Do It: Ethics and The Simpsons 10. The Moral World of the Simpson Family: A Kantian Perspective JAMES LAWLER 11. The Simpsons: Atomistic Politics and the Nuclear Family PAUL A. CANTOR 12. Springfield Hypocrisy JASON HOLT 13. Enjoying the so-called "Iced Cream": Mr. Burns, Satan, and Happiness DANIEL BARWICK 14. Hey-diddily-ho, Neighboreenos: Ned Flanders and Neighborly Love DAVID VESSEY 15. The Function of Fiction: The Heuristic Value of Homer JENNIFER L. MCMAHON Part IV - The Simpsons and the Philosophers 16. A (Karl, not Groucho) Marxist in Springfield JAMES M. WALLACE 17. "And the Rest Writes Itself: Roland Barthes Watches The Simpsons DAVID L. G. ARNOLD 18. What Bart Calls Thinking KELLY DEAN JOLLEY Episode List Based on Ideas By Featuring the Voices Of Index Acknowledgments The writing, editing, and other miscellaneous tasks involved in producing The Simpsons and Philosophy amounted to a fun and stimulating experience. We would like to thank the contributors for keeping both a sense of professionalism and a sense of humor throughout the project. We would sincerely like to thank the good folks at Open Court, particularly David Ramsay Steele and Jennifer Asmuth for their advice and assistance. And, last but not least, we would like to thank our friends, colleagues, and students with whom we discussed The Simpsons and philosophy, who helped make the work possible, and who offered valuable feedback on the work in progress. A list such as this is almost inevitably incomplete, but among those to whom we are indebted are: Trisha Allen, Lisa Bahnemann, Anthony Hartle, Megan Lloyd, Jennifer O'Neill, and Peter Stromberg. Introduction: Meditations on Springfield? How many philosophers does it take to write a book about The Simpsons? Apparently, about 20 to write it and 3 to edit. But that's not so bad, considering it takes 300 people 8 months, at a cost of 1.5 million dollars, to make a single episode of The Simpsons. Seriously, though, don't we have other work to do besides writing about TV shows? The short answer is yes, we do, but we enjoyed writing these essays, and we hope you'll enjoy reading them. The seeds for this volume were sown a few years ago. When the popular comedy Seinfeld was going off the air, William Irwin had a quirky idea -- a collection of philosophical essays on the "show about nothing." He and his philosopher pals enjoyed the show and engaged in many humorous and stimulating discussions about it, so why not share the fun in the form of a book? The people at Open Court had the vision, fortitude, and sense of humor to take on the project, and so Irwin found himself editing Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing. The book was a true success, not only among academics, but among the general public as well. Another television show Irwin and his friends enjoyed and had discussed is The Simpsons, They appreciated its irony, its irreverence, and they realized that -- like Seinfeld -- it was a rich and fertile ground for philosophical investigation and discussion. So Irwin decided to put together a second volume, this one on The Simpsons, and he asked two of the contributors to the Seinfeld book, Mark Conard and Aeon Skoble, to co-edit the work. Once again, Open Court applauded the idea, and if you're reading this, you're obviously at least a little interested in either philosophy, The Simpsons, or both. The concept is the same: the show has enough intelligence and depth to warrant some philosophical discussion, and as a popular show, can also serve as a vehicle for exploring a variety of philosophical issues for a general audience. The Simpsons is rich in satire. Without question it is one of the most intelligent and literate comedies on television today. (We know that's not saying much, but still. .) It may seem incongruous to those who have dismissed it as a mere cartoon about an oaf and his family (and we've seen plenty of those) to say that the show is intelligent and literate, but attentive viewing reveals levels of comedy far beyond farce.