Customer Reviews

Philosophy and the Interpretation of Pop Culture

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The intersection between philosophy and popular culture has received a lot of attention in recent years, and for good reason. There are now at least three book series devoted to it, a trend that has been met with both enthusiasm and skepticism. This wonderful scholarly collection of essays written by such important and well-known philosophers as Gareth Matthews, Carolyn Korsmeyer, Noel Carroll, Ted Cohen, Jorge Gracia, and Peter Hare (to name but a few) should help enable the naysayers see the value of riding the waves of pop culture to discuss important questions. In my experience it's not generally been philosophers who lament such an enterprise; usually the actual philosophers are among the happiest to see the questions and issues of philosophy receive a bigger hearing, in the hopes that, once engaged, more and more people will continue down the path of thinking hard about questions that matter. Those who tend to be most skeptical are usually nonphilosophers whose vision of philosophy somehow excludes its association with anything so crass as popular movies or television shows. Whatever the virtues of their elevated view of philosophy, they need to be disabused of the idea that philosophy must be confined inside the walls of academia, or that philosophy has nothing to gain from pop culture, and if any book can do it, this one can. Highly recommended, for the enthusiasts and skeptics alike!