Star Wars and Philosophy by Kevin S. Decker, Jason T. Eberl, William Irwin Table of Contents The Force Is with You... but You're Not a Jedi Yet.......................................................................................................5 Part I "May The Force Be with You"............................................................................................................................6 "Clouded This Boy's Future Is"...............................................................................................................................7 "Everything Is Proceeding as I Had Foreseen".....................................................................................................10 "He's Got to Follow His Own Path"......................................................................................................................11 "This One a Long Time Have I Watched".............................................................................................................13 Stoicism in the Stars: Yoda, the Emperor, and the Force..........................................................................................14 Appearance versus Reality: Jester or Jedi Master?..............................................................................................14 Stoicism and the Virtues of the Sage...................................................................................................................16 The Logic of the Dark Side........................................................................................................................................19 "Control, Control, You Must Learn Control"........................................................................................................21 The Far East of Star Wars..........................................................................................................................................21 "Don't Give In to Hate: That Leads to the Dark Side"...........................................................................................22 "Great Warrior? Wars Not Make One Great"......................................................................................................24 Moral Ambiguity in a Black-and-White Universe......................................................................................................27 "This Deal Is Getting Worse All the Time"............................................................................................................29 "I'm a Jedi... I Know I'm Better Than This"...........................................................................................................31 "You Know... What They're Up Against"..............................................................................................................34 Part II........................................................................................................................................................................34 The Old Republic and the Older Republic............................................................................................................35 A Balancing Act....................................................................................................................................................36 The Right Kind of Love..............................................................................................................................................38 The Jedi Model..........................................................................................................................................................40 "A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy": Star Wars and the Problem of Evil...........................................................40 "If Once You Start Down the Dark Path..."...........................................................................................................45 The Fate of Evil after the Overthrow of the Empire..................................................................................................47 "Be Mindful of the Living Force": Environmental Ethics in Star Wars.......................................................................48 Wookiees and Mynocks and Hutts, Oh My!.........................................................................................................48 Value in Nature....................................................................................................................................................50 "May The Force Be with You": Lessons from the Jedi...............................................................................................52 Culture versus Nature..........................................................................................................................................53 Restoring Balance to the Force............................................................................................................................54 Send In the Clones: The Ethics of Future Wars.........................................................................................................55 Cloning Gets a Bum Rap.......................................................................................................................................56 Getting into Your Genes......................................................................................................................................57 Different Strokes for Different Folks....................................................................................................................58 War: What Is It Good For?...................................................................................................................................59 To Be All You Can Be, or Not? - That Is the Question...........................................................................................60 Send in the Clones!..............................................................................................................................................62 Part III "Don't Call Me a Mindless Philosopher!"......................................................................................................62 Heidegger on Technology....................................................................................................................................62 "An Elegant Weapon": The Lightsaber as Ready-To-Hand...................................................................................64 Yoda as Being-in-the-Dagobah System................................................................................................................65 Enframing and the Eye of the Empire..................................................................................................................66 The Enframing of Anakin Skywalker.....................................................................................................................67 "If Droids Could Think...": Droids as Slaves and Persons...........................................................................................69 "If Droids Could Think, There'd Be None of Us Here, Would There?"..................................................................71 It's Not Our Lot in Life!.........................................................................................................................................75 "Size Matters Not": The Force as the Causal Power of the Jedi................................................................................76 The Source of the Jedi's Power............................................................................................................................76 "Size Matters Not"...............................................................................................................................................77 The Power that Keeps On Giving.........................................................................................................................79 "There's [Not] One All-Powerful Force Controlling Everything"..........................................................................80 "May The Force Be with You"..............................................................................................................................82 The Force Is with Us: Hegel's Philosophy of Spirit Strikes Back at the Empire..........................................................82 Mythic Journey of the Hero.................................................................................................................................83 Spirit: Hegel's Distillation of the History of Religion............................................................................................84 Anakin Skywalker as the Chosen One..................................................................................................................86 The Force of Love.................................................................................................................................................88 Part IV "There's Always a Bigger Fish" Truth, Faith, and a Galactic Society..............................................................90 Masters and Slaves: Who Rules Whom?..............................................................................................................90 An Empire of Fear and Trembling........................................................................................................................93 By