Philosophy and the Interpretation of Pop Culture

William Irwin is associate professor of philosophy at King's College, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Jorge J. E. Gracia is Samuel P. Capen Chair and SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy at SUNY-Buffalo. He is the author of Surviving Race, Ethinicity, and Nationality (2005).

Whether we call it popular culture or mass art, there's plenty of people who think it's like junk food — bad for you. This collection by top scholars makes a strong case that there's not just some nourishment mixed in there, but even some entries worth savoring. Popular culture can educate, arouse emotions, ponder philosophy, and make esoteric allusions that reward aesthetic attention.

• Part 1 AcknowledgementsPart 2 1. Philosophy Engages Popular Culture: An IntroductionPart 3 Part I: Philosophy and Popular CultureChapter 4 2. Philosophy and the Probably ImpossibleChapter 5 3. Philosophy as/and/of Popular CultureChapter 6 4. Allusion and Intention in Popular ArtChapter 7 5. On the Ties That Bind: Characters, the Emotions, and the Popular FictionsChapter 8 6. Liking What's Good: Why Should We?Chapter 9 7. Popular Art and Entertainment ValuePart 10 Part II: Interpretation and Popular Art FormsChapter 11 8. Popular Culture and Spontaneous Order: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the TubeChapter 12 9. From Horror to Hero: Film Interpretations of Stocker's Dracula Chapter 13 10. Socrates at Story Hour: Philosophy as a Subversive Motif in Children's LiteratureChapter 14 11. Of Batcaves and Clock-Towers: Living Damaged Lives in Gotham CityChapter 15 12. "American Pie" and the Self-Critique of Rock 'n' RollChapter 16 13. Photography, Popular Epistemology, Flexible Realism, and Holistic Pragmatism