Customer Reviews

House and Philosophy: Everybody Lies (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series)

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I'm a big fan of the various series of books on philosophy and popular culture. (There are three such series that I'm aware of: "Popular Culture and Philosophy" from Open Court Publishing, the "Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series" from Wiley, and "The Philosophy of Popular Culture" from The University of Kentucky.) All of these series use popular culture -- TV shows, movies, music, popular books, sports, fads, etc. -- to illustrate important issues in philosophy and ethics. I have read several of the books in these series, and have been very impressed with all of them. I especially enjoyed reading "House and Philosophy: Everybody Lies" (which is part of the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series). As a lifelong student of philosophy, and a huge fan of the TV series "House, M.D.", I had to get this book.

"House, M.D." is a show about Dr. Gregory House, a brilliant but misanthropic diagnostician with a razor sharp wit and a contemptuous disregard for the feelings of others. House has little use for hospital rules or medical ethics. He openly rebels against any form of authority that would attempt to interfere with his ability to do what he thinks is best. He abuses his staff, insults his patients, manipulates his friends, alienates everyone who cares about him, ridicules anyone who disagrees with him, and takes pleasure in making others as miserable as he is. He is an unrepentant drug addict, a heavy drinker, and a frequent client of prostitutes. He is a militant atheist with nothing but contempt for religion and conventional morality. He will not hesitate to break the law or violate other people's rights in order to get what he wants. He can be brutally honest or a boldfaced liar, depending on his mood and his motives. House is basically a sociopath. He also saves lives. He does it by solving medical mysteries that completely baffle other doctors. Although he doesn't really care about his patients as human beings, he is an obsessive puzzle solver; and he will not rest until he has figured out what is wrong and how to treat it. You wouldn't want House as your family doctor. But, if you were dying of a mysterious illness, you would definitely want House on the case.

As you might imagine, this show raises a number of fascinating ethical and philosophical issues. Many of these issues are explored in this wonderful book: "House and Philosophy: Everybody Lies". One thing I really like about the essays in this book is that they are very well written and accessible, even to someone with no background in philosophy or medical ethics. Some of the other philosophy and popular culture books I have read have included essays that dealt with fairly esoteric philosophical issues, and would be more suitable for readers who have a fairly strong background in philosophy. But this book avoids that. I think that anyone who is a fan of "House, M.D." will find this book engaging, entertaining, enlightening, and easy to follow, even if they've never taken a single class in philosophy or ethics.

One caveat though: While you don't have to have a background in philosophy in order to understand and enjoy this book, you do need to have at least a basic familiarity with the TV show "House, M.D." -- its premise, its characters, the overall story arc, etc. If you're new to the show, then you may want to wait until you've watched at least the first three seasons before you try to tackle this book. (Note that the book deals mainly with themes from the first three seasons of the show; though there are a few references to events from the early episodes of the fourth season.) I would highly recommend this book for all "House, M.D." fans -- especially those with an interest in philosophy and ethics.

Even if you have no interest in philosophy, this book is truly satisfying for any fan of House. Each chapter examines a different aspect of the show, while relating it to an existing philosophical theory. If you're not interested in that aspect of the show, then don't worry because the writing will not confuse you. It is well written, clear and thought out. If, however, you have an interest in philosophy, then the introduction of philosophical theories is even more interesting and makes the show even more layered and in the words of Dr. House "cool."

Most interesting to me were the bits comparing House with Sherlock Holmes. Commonalities include love of puzzle solving, house breaking, using Macchiavellian means to get at the truth, drug use, and deductive abilities. 'Your skin is orange, that means your wife is having an affair.'

My favorite parts were the chapter on love, and the chapter on friendship by Sara Protasi, and Sara Waller respectively. I also liked the ones on Sartre, and the Ubermensch.

Although some mention is made of the Socratic Method, it would need to be explained in more detail.

On the matter of Detective Tritter, which was one of my favorite parts in the series, it does not draw any analogy between House's behavior and the Trial of Socrates, even though House seems hell bent on his own destruction, much the way Socrates was.

Even though Socrates could have escaped, his apology was so bad that more people voted for his death than voted to convict him for his crime. So he took the hemlock.

It would be interesting to see the writers of this book tackle Aristotle's poetics, and it's influence on drama and screen writing in future books. As some philosophers were also psychiatrists, it might also enliven the reader to have some psychological insight into the character.

Philosophy is not for everyone. If you are like me, you will like the deeper philosophical dialogue in House, and you may find this book gives you further food for thought, and a curiosity to explore even further.

It does take genius writing to portray a genius character, and I would like to commend the writers of House for the brilliant job they do. Just because House is often wrong doesn't mean he is not eventually right.

Hope this was useful.

This is a very interesting book. For anyone who is a fan of House, and is interested in the workds of people such as Freidrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, or nihilist and existentialist philosophy in general, or eastern philosophy like Taoism will find this a very good read.

House and Philosophy: Everybody Lies (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series)

If you are a TRUE HOUSE fan, this book is truly a MUST HAVE!! It helps you to understand "Gregory House" (and all the supporting cast of characters) and gives you insight into how the writers (and actors) created the TV Series (and cast), how they connect with each other within the Series, and the real life (or imaginary) persons -- i.e. Aristotle & Plato to Sherlock Holmes -- their personalities are taken from.

This is an outstanding book written by academic philosophers, yet it is perfect for the layman who wants to think critically about House. I highly recommend.

I like certain bits of philosophy, but often find that philosophy books discuss the same old stuff again and again. This book, taking it cue from Fox's "House, M.D." star, Greg House, is more modern and tackles some cool stuff. I've only just begun it, and already I have lots of new ideas and thoughts from it. I don't agree with all the conclusions -- or even all the premises -- presented by the various authors, but it's still fun to read a philosophy book that is new and interesting. By the by, you don't have to watch "House" to read the book. The TV is a springboard for the book, so you can read without having to buy and watch all five seasons of the show first.

Since I got the book I could not stop reading it, is entertaining and most certainly intriguing. every chapter is a whole new meaning as well it gives insight to fans of the show as well in philosophy. BUY the book you will not regret is a must have.

this presented some very interesting viewpoints and was a good read. i have never read a philosophy book before and this book presented the material in a way i could understand it with clear references and explanations to those references.

I find this series of books "... & philosophy" an interesting concept and would be curious to read another in the series to see if the editor chose to make the collection of essays more cohesive. Some of these contradict each other, which is Ok in one sense as they are all individual pieces and having different opinions give the reader the opportunity to think about what they believe, but it was still a bit jarring for the overall book and I would have liked it if the final chapter tied things together somehow; much like the introduction tries to. Some of the pieces were highly entertaining, some thought provoking and some as dry as desert dust. The least successful piece, for me, was "The Sound of One House Clapping: The Unmannerly Doctor as Zen Rhetorician"; this was way too dry and abstract, too much focus on the meaning of the philosophy and not enough examples to tie it to House.
The most interesting essay was one where the reasoning of House and Sherlock Holmes is compared (made me want to go back and read Holmes!)