The Philosopher at the End of the Universe: Philosophy Explained Through Science Fiction Films (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Why Frankenstein? This is supposed to be a book about sci-phi - the philosophy embodied in science fiction - so why begin with what is..." (more)
Key Phrases: same person from one day, causal lineage, agent causation theory, Adam Gibson, Darth Vader, Star Wars (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

All the revelations of a college survey course on philosophy can be easily gleaned from a few science fiction films. At least that’s the premise of this thoroughly entertaining conversation starter by philosophy professor Rowlands, who explicates the musings of some of philosophy’s biggest stars within the context of cinema’s most enduring sci-fi hits. Under Rowlands’s guidance, these films shed light on such abstruse philosophical ideas as the "the problem of free will" and "death and the meaning of life." For example, the great lesson of Frankenstein is not that life can originate only from a divine creator, Rowlands says. Rather, the monster, a creature unable to choose his physical nature, his parents or his future, actually embodies the existential dilemmas explored by Heidegger, Sartre and Camus. In a particularly winning chapter on Star Wars, Rowlands compares the musings of Plato and Nietzsche, conjecturing that evil is not the absence of good but, rather, a contrast necessary in order for good to exist. (That is, Darth Vader is nothing without Obi-Wan and vice versa.) Rowlands recommends that readers watch each film before plunging into the corresponding chapter. And he makes no apologies for his "lowbrow" intellectual diversions into such crowd pleasers as Total Recall (a celluloid essay on memory theory and identity), Hollow Man (a meditation on moral vs. "prudent" choices) and The Matrix (a Cartesian daydream). Rowlands frequently injects his own thoughts with self-deprecating charm. His combination of humor and erudition produces an engaging read, delightful in its tone and accessible in its prose, that affirms the wisdom of numerous armchair philosophers who have declared that everything you need to know about life can be learned from the movies.
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From Booklist

Irish philosopher Rowlands adopts a mildly smart-alecky persona for this Philosophy 101-type foray that uses "sci-fi" flickers to illustrate questions of meaning, knowledge, identity, free will, morality, and death. Frankenstein--actually, Kenneth Brannagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein-- serves to tease out the meaning of life as absurdity, a result of the discrepancy between interior and exterior perspectives on the self. Because of the same inside-outside clash--the rock, Rowlands says, on which all philosophical positions founder--certain knowledge proves elusive: see The Matrix. The mind-body problem (see The Terminator) and the concept of personal identity (Total Recall) come to ends similar, respectively, to those of the issues of meaning and knowledge. Only when the issue is "Why be moral?" are the bonds of rationality slipped; act according to your conscience, Rowlands, along with Nietzsche, counsels. While arguing by inference (they star in so many philosophically intriguing films) that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Keanu Reeves be hailed as actor-philosophers, Rowlands effectively covers an astonishing number of essential thinkers and positions, meanwhile betraying only individualist and antireligious biases. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312322348
• ISBN-13: 978-0312322342
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #930,800 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A New Genre: Sci-Phi, November 22, 2004

By	James E. Mahon "Caligula" (Lexington, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Let me begin by saying that I met the author, Mark Rowlands, on several occasions while he was teaching at University College, Cork, in Ireland. Let me also say that I was extremely jealous when I first came across this book in a bookshop in Cambridge, England. For years I have shown my students clips from science-fiction films such as "The Matrix" (re: Descartes's first Meditation) and "The Terminator" (re: machines without sensation -- Descartes again) and "Total Recall" (re: Descartes's first Meditation again, and Locke's memory theory of identity) when teaching my Modern Philosophy course. But Rowlands beat the rest of us to it and wrote a book in this vein -- an introduction to philosophy by way of popular science-fiction films.

This Winter Term (2005), for the second year in a row, I will be assigning this book for my Modern Philosophy course. (Last time I had to order the books from England; this time they are available in the US). In 2004 my students enjoyed the book tremendously and it proved very useful, especially the sections on Descartes (chapters 2 and 3 on skepticism about the external world and the mind-body problem -- "The Matrix" and "The Terminator"), Locke (chapter 4 on personal identity -- "Total Recall" and "The Sixth Day") and Hume (chapter 5 on free will -- "Minority Report").

The author, Rowlands, is known best for his work in the philosophy of mind and applied ethics (especially the ethical status of animals). I believe that the earlier parts of the book, dealing with philosophy of mind, metaphysics and epistemology, are easily the best. The final parts of the book dealing with ethics -- chapter 6 on "Hollow Man" (why should we be ethical?), chapter 7 on "Independence Day" and "Aliens" (should the scope of ethics extend to aliens?) and chapter 8 on "Star Wars" (good vs. evil) -- are not quite up to standard. Somewhere in between, standard-wise, are the parts dealing with the meaning of life -- chapter 1 on "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" and chapter 9 on "Blade Runner".

The book is written primarily for undergraduates. It normally does a nice job of presenting philosophical ideas and problems in an appealing and direct fashion. You can tell that the author is part of the generation that grew up watching Star Wars and then Buffy, but has a D.Phil from Oxford and can write about supervenience or Doug Lenat's CYC project.

This makes it all sound far too serious and educational, however. The most important thing about this book is that it is funny. It's funny about philosophy, and it's funny about films too. Exhibit A: ""Minority Report"... also has Tom Cruise in it, not a man you normally associate with complex philosophical issues. I mean, scientology? Give me a break." (p. 121) Rowlands is nothing if not irreverent, and you will laugh out loud while reading this.

So far, I have found only a few factual errors (references are to the English Ebury Press 2003 paperback edition). Heidegger's "Being and Time" was published in 1927, not 1926 (p. 7). Wittgenstein's "Tractatus Logico-philosophicus" was completed in 1918 and published in 1921, not published in 1916 (p. 53). And the Cameron Crowe movie starring Tom Cruise is "Vanilla Sky", not "Vanilla Skies" (p. 121). The only philosophical error I have found is that he refers to Occasionalism as "parallelism" (p. 72) (parallelism is a different position and can be espoused by a Dual Aspect theorist such as Spinoza). But that is just something discussed in a footnote.

I am usually not happy with Rowlands' quick resolutions of various matters in the final sections of his chapters. But it would be unfair to beat him over the head about this. I also find some of the humor to be too laddish for my taste. It's not particularly funny to say how much you love beer and imagined sex with Sarah Michelle Gellar, and it becomes painful to say it the n-th time. But these are minor criticims of a refreshing read, on the whole.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and Rewarding, January 11, 2005

By	Vance "Klaatu" - See all my reviews

A great primer for philosophical thought that does not put one to sleep. In fact, this was such a good read, it kept me up late into for several evenings. Professor Rowlands also happens to be one funny man. Very well done.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Entertaining, yet Robust Hike for the Armchair Philosopher, December 19, 2005

By	Gopal Ramasammy-Cook "www.gopalrc.co.za" (Cape Town, South Africa) - See all my reviews

Who knew that we would see big-screen heroes like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keanu Reeves, and Tom Cruise take their rightful places beside the likes of Descartes, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, and Plato? And I don't mean at the Oscars!

In this book Rowlands has brought together several areas of popular interest: philosophy, movies, and science fiction, in a way that benefits all three. It is a rollicking romp through often-dry philosophical fields such as the meaning of life, theory of knowledge, the mind-body problem, personal identity, free will, and ethics.

While the tone is tongue-in-cheek, the content took me deeper down the rabbit-hole of philosophy than many such popular offerings.