CFP: BioShock and Philosophy

BioShock and Philosophy

Edited by Luke Cuddy

The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series

To propose ideas for future volumes in the Blackwell series please contact the Series Editor, William Irwin, at [email protected] 

If you have comments or criticisms for the series, please contact the series editor after reading “Fancy Taking a Pop?” at http://www.psychologytoday.com/files/attachments/55564/fancy-taking-pop.pdf

Abstracts and subsequent essays should be philosophically substantial but accessible, written to engage the intelligent lay reader. Contributors of accepted essays will receive an honorarium.

We are interested in abstracts dealing with the BioShock series and other related media, including the seminal, preceding System Shock series. Possible themes and topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:

Objectivism: Is Andrew Ryan Really Just a Male Ayn Rand?; BioShock: A Balance Between Narrative and Violence; Karma in Rapture: To Rescue or to Harvest?; Big Daddies and Little Sisters: Do the Ends (ADAM) Justify the Means?; Freewill vs. Determinism: Was Booker's/Comstock's Future Fixed From the Beginning?, Did Jack's Genetic Conditioning Determine His Behavior?; The Question of Scientific Progress: Should We Praise or Condemn the Genius of Brigid?; Propaganda and Deceptive Language in BioShock: Brainwashing Children at Ryan Amusements and the Suppression of Free Speech; American Exceptionalism and Columbia; Libertarianism and Laissez Faire Capitalism in Rapture; The Vox Populi Group, Marx, and Equal Rights for All; Class Warfare (more Marx) in Rapture; Orwell and Dystopia: Is Columbia like Oceania?; Personal Identity: Robert and Rosalind are the Same Person from Different Realities, or Are They? (also could work with Booker and Comstock), If Your Genes are Altered Enough via Plasmids, Are You Still the Same Person?; Economic Philosophy and the Elites: Is Jeremiah Fink of the 1%?; Consequentialism vs. Deontology: Booker's Moral Choices (or lack thereof); Does the Skyline Make It Easier?: Rules of War, Multiplayer, and Combat Types Across the BioShock Series; Booker/Comstock, Prophecy, and Religious Fanaticism (Is Booker Like Neo?); Booker's and Elizabeth's Religious Views: Faith and Skepticism; Feminist Critiques: Elizabeth Has Special Powers, But is She Anything More Than a Helper to Booker?; Metaphysics vs. Physics: Can the Ghosts in Rapture Be Explained by Science?; Possible Realities: Elizabeth and Tears in Spacetime; Nietzsche's Will to Power: Frank Fontaine/Atlas vs. Andrew Ryan; Elizabeth, Ethics, and Complicity: Is It Wrong To Pick Locks?; Interpreting Authority: Would the Founding Fathers Have Wanted Rapture and Columbia to be Built?

Submission Guidelines:

1. Submission deadline for abstracts (100-500 words) and CV(s): September 9, 2013.

2. Submission deadline for drafts of accepted papers:  January13, 2014.

Kindly submit by e-mail (with or without Word attachment) to: Luke Cuddy [email protected]