NATHAN KELLEN received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Connecticut in 2019 and is currently a teaching assistant professor in philosophy at Kansas State University. He is a co-editor of The Nature of Truth: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives (2021) and has contributed to several popular culture and philosophy books including Joker and Philosophy (2024), Star Wars and Philosophy Strikes Back (2023), and The Last Airbender and Philosophy (2022). NATHAN SHEFF earned his PhD in philosophy in 2017 from the University of Connecticut. When he’s not teaching philosophy, he’s observing the birds and pollinators that visit his yard. Fallout and Philosophy is his first co-edited book. JOSHUA HETER earned his PhD in philosophy from Saint Louis University in 2013, and he’s a professor of philosophy at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, MO. He’s published several popular culture and philosophy books, including Back to the Future and Philosophy (2025), The Godfather and Philosophy (2023), and Punk Rock and Philosophy (2022).

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• The Vault Dwellers viiiFlesh Is Weak, but Questions Endure xivPart 1 Living and Dying in the Wasteland 11 Death in the Wasteland: What Do the Living Owe to the Dead? 3Mackenzie Graham2 Should Lucy and Maximus Have Children? The Ethics of Reproducing in the Apocalypse 11Eric J. Silverman3 All Too Human: Moral Status in the Wasteland 20David R. Lawrence4 Fallout and the Ethics of Killing Everything 28Trevor Grant HedbergPart 2 Synths, Cyborgs, and the Self 355 My Pip-Boy, My Self: The Extended Mind and Its Fallout 37Michael Funke and Quinn Funke6 Transhumanism or Bust! 45Walter Barta7 Synthetic Souls? Pragmatist Functionalism and the Moral Status of Synths in Fallout 54Albert R. Spencer8 Robots, Cyborgs, and Synths: Exploring Personhood in the Fallout Universe 64Matthew WattsPart 3 Overseer, Overseen: Fallout and Political Philosophy 739 Locked In: The Fallout of Liberal Ideals in Vault 33 75John P. Irish10 War Never Changes: Just War Theory in the Fallout Universe 84Alba Curry and Gerald Lang11 The Brotherhood of Steel: The Politics of Monopolizing Knowledge and Technology 94Sergio Urueña12 Lucy in the Wasteland with Ghouls: The Search for Truth in a Platonic World 103Federico Dal Barco13 No Mungos! Children and Politics in Little Lamplight 109Andrea ConquePart 4 Morality at the End of the World 11714 Should Chems Be Banned? 119Ian McDaniel15 The Ghoul and the Golden Rule: A Rare Taste of Ethical Riches from the Vault 128Benjamin B. DeVan16 You Gotta Stand for Something: Ethical Reasoning in Fallout 4 137Armond Boudreaux17 Sanitizing the Apocalypse: Moral Extremes in Fallout's Simulated Wasteland 147Kenneth R. Pike18 Vault-Tec and the Moral Fallout of Human Experimentation 156Bobbie L. EicherPart 5 A Beautiful Disaster: The Aesthetics of Fallout 16519 Genre Fusion and Its Fallout 167Nathan Sheff20 Putting Broken Glass Back Together: Freedom Through Modding in Bethesda-era Fallout 175Chris Lay21 Some Video Games Are S.P.E.C.I.A.L. 183Katia S. Franco22 Aesthetics in the Age of the Atom 191S. Evan Kreider23 Player Narrative and Dying Well: Re-examining the Ending of Fallout 3 198Daniel Guy BaldwinPart 6 Apocalyptic Psychology 20724 Loss, Care, and Morality in Fallout: An Ethics of Care Approach 209Karen "Kat" Schrier25 Obsessed with "The End" and What Comes After 218Eric D. Wesselmann and J. Scott Jordan26 The Wasteland Is Hell. So, Why Go There? 227Greg LittmannIndex 235

NATHAN KELLEN received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Connecticut in 2019 and is currently a teaching assistant professor in philosophy at Kansas State University. He is a co-editor of The Nature of Truth: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives (2021) and has contributed to several popular culture and philosophy books including Joker and Philosophy (2024), Star Wars and Philosophy Strikes Back (2023), and The Last Airbender and Philosophy (2022). NATHAN SHEFF earned his PhD in philosophy in 2017 from the University of Connecticut. When he’s not teaching philosophy, he’s observing the birds and pollinators that visit his yard. Fallout and Philosophy is his first co-edited book. JOSHUA HETER earned his PhD in philosophy from Saint Louis University in 2013, and he’s a professor of philosophy at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, MO. He’s published several popular culture and philosophy books, including Back to the Future and Philosophy (2025), The Godfather and Philosophy (2023), and Punk Rock and Philosophy (2022).

Select Guide Rating

• The Vault Dwellers viiiFlesh Is Weak, but Questions Endure xivPart 1 Living and Dying in the Wasteland 11 Death in the Wasteland: What Do the Living Owe to the Dead? 3Mackenzie Graham2 Should Lucy and Maximus Have Children? The Ethics of Reproducing in the Apocalypse 11Eric J. Silverman3 All Too Human: Moral Status in the Wasteland 20David R. Lawrence4 Fallout and the Ethics of Killing Everything 28Trevor Grant HedbergPart 2 Synths, Cyborgs, and the Self 355 My Pip-Boy, My Self: The Extended Mind and Its Fallout 37Michael Funke and Quinn Funke6 Transhumanism or Bust! 45Walter Barta7 Synthetic Souls? Pragmatist Functionalism and the Moral Status of Synths in Fallout 54Albert R. Spencer8 Robots, Cyborgs, and Synths: Exploring Personhood in the Fallout Universe 64Matthew WattsPart 3 Overseer, Overseen: Fallout and Political Philosophy 739 Locked In: The Fallout of Liberal Ideals in Vault 33 75John P. Irish10 War Never Changes: Just War Theory in the Fallout Universe 84Alba Curry and Gerald Lang11 The Brotherhood of Steel: The Politics of Monopolizing Knowledge and Technology 94Sergio Urueña12 Lucy in the Wasteland with Ghouls: The Search for Truth in a Platonic World 103Federico Dal Barco13 No Mungos! Children and Politics in Little Lamplight 109Andrea ConquePart 4 Morality at the End of the World 11714 Should Chems Be Banned? 119Ian McDaniel15 The Ghoul and the Golden Rule: A Rare Taste of Ethical Riches from the Vault 128Benjamin B. DeVan16 You Gotta Stand for Something: Ethical Reasoning in Fallout 4 137Armond Boudreaux17 Sanitizing the Apocalypse: Moral Extremes in Fallout's Simulated Wasteland 147Kenneth R. Pike18 Vault-Tec and the Moral Fallout of Human Experimentation 156Bobbie L. EicherPart 5 A Beautiful Disaster: The Aesthetics of Fallout 16519 Genre Fusion and Its Fallout 167Nathan Sheff20 Putting Broken Glass Back Together: Freedom Through Modding in Bethesda-era Fallout 175Chris Lay21 Some Video Games Are S.P.E.C.I.A.L. 183Katia S. Franco22 Aesthetics in the Age of the Atom 191S. Evan Kreider23 Player Narrative and Dying Well: Re-examining the Ending of Fallout 3 198Daniel Guy BaldwinPart 6 Apocalyptic Psychology 20724 Loss, Care, and Morality in Fallout: An Ethics of Care Approach 209Karen "Kat" Schrier25 Obsessed with "The End" and What Comes After 218Eric D. Wesselmann and J. Scott Jordan26 The Wasteland Is Hell. So, Why Go There? 227Greg LittmannIndex 235