Undead and Philosophy: Chicken Soup for the Soulless (Popular Culture and Philosophy Series), Vol. 22 Book

I bought this book as a joke for a friend, because we are both big fans of zombies, then of course begged him to let me borrow it so I could read it. It turned out to be a surprisingly erudite discussion of an enormous variety of philosophical traditions that took me right back to my undergraduate days at Marquette University. Using zombies and vampires as their starting point, nineteen professors/Ph.D. candidates from as many universities get into some pretty deep philosophical waters as they construct arguments around issues like the nature of Evil, the mind vs. the body, and hedonism.

Back in my day, everyone had to take at least three philosophy classes to graduate, and so we all took our turns parsing the Greats, from Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Plato's Republic through Kant, Nietzsche and Heidegger. As the various authors in this anthology dig into their chosen topics, they reference all of these philosophers and many more, along with famed modern experts like George Romero, Ridley Scott and Joss Whedon.

The first chapter alone cites Epicurus, Thomas Nagel, Bernard Williams, and John Stuart Mill. The second chapter contrasts a psychological approach to identity vs. a physiological approach and cites Descartes and Locke in arguing that bodily continuity is sufficient for personal identity'otherwise, why would we find zombies so scary? The author of chapter three also looks to Locke to help answer the question why in movies it is deemed acceptable to simply slaughter the zombies (do we need to create PETZ, a society for the Protection and Ethical Treatment of Zombies?). The author in chapter four introduced me to instrumental and non-instrumental motives and used examples like Sauron and Hannibal Lecter to make his points. Chapter five reminded me strongly of some of Kurzweil's writings on the Singularity and chapter six enlightened me as to Heidegger's Nazi leanings which nonetheless serve up a possible interpretation of Dracula as a symbol for the "unpure" among us. Chapter seven examines consumerism and chapter eight introduces Freud's theory of the uncanny, which is taken up by several other authors in later chapters. The concept of the "philosophical zombie," totally new to me (and which made me think of Cylons in the Battlestar Galactica reboot), is used in chapter nine to make a point about moral responsibility toward zombies and chapter ten extends the argument to vampires, and any other entities capable of self-conscious moral reflection. Chapter eleven was one of my favorite chapters, and the first time I have taken seriously an argument in favor of vegetarianism. The authors of chapters twelve and thirteen use vampires to explain the "hedonistic paradox" and the apparent benefits of vampirism, respectively, with multiple references to Epicurus, Ann Rice and even Thoreau.

The final chapters in the book were delightful in that they were not at all what I expected to find in a book about philosophy. Chapter fourteen uses economic frameworks to propose different ways in which vampires and humans might learn to co-exist. Chapter fifteen begins with accounts of real-life vampires and witches in history, implying that these beings appear at times of political and religious turmoil, fear and insecurity. The writings of Rousseau provide some reasons for why this happens, and the entire chapter resonates with our post-9/11 world's vilification of LGBT folks, Muslims, immigrants, etc. as dangerous things to be feared and controlled. Chapter sixteen returns to the question of the undead as representatives of unbridled hedonism and uses Freud to discuss issues of repression and the rejection of authority. Chapter seventeen, one of only two written by women, uses Thomas Hobbes's theory of the social contract and Romero's zombie film oeuvre to answer the question of whether individualism or communitarianism is the superior political philosophy. Chapter 18 seeks to debunk the Fruedian (AKA sexual) interpretation of our love of horror in popular entertainment. The final chapter (written by the anthology's second female author) deals with the philosophy of aesthetics as it relates to vampires. There's a short history of aesthetics from Pythagorus to Plato, Aristotle and Kant, but what I found it interesting was the inclusion of feminist philosophers like Susan Bordo and Sandra Lee Bartky to talk about the ways in which various cultures through history have treated women's bodies not as naturally beautiful, but instead as something to be regulated, molded and ornamented in order to be accepted as normal. The author observes that while both male and female vampires are invariably stunningly beautiful, sexually voracious and deadly, it is only the female vampires who deliver a cautionary message that women who are both bad and beautiful do not live happily ever after, even if they are immortal.

This book, with its many references to great philosophers both ancient and modern, could easily serve as a textbook for a serious philosophy class. As is stated in the introduction, there is a long history of using pop culture examples to illustrate difficult or abstract philosophical concepts. Using zombies and vampires to think about death, identity, morality, racism and even economics and politics made for a great read, one that could really hook college students into enjoying this normally daunting field of study.