CFP: Sons of Anarchy and Philosophy

Edited by George A. Dunn and Jason T. Eberl

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.

Possible themes and topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Going to the “Chapel”: The MC as Religion; 
• The MC versus the Leviathan; 
• Old Ladies and Sweet Butts: Women and the MC; 
• The Ethics of Honor, Loyalty, and Revenge; 
• Fathers, Sons, and Identity Across Generations; 
• Nords, Mayans, and Niners: Are Racist Stereotypes Timesavers?; 
• The Ethics of Law Enforcement; 
• “I'm Not Sure Which Cancer is Worse”: Wayne Unser and the Dangers of Cooperating with Evil; 
• The Sons of Anarchy and the Political Theory of Anarchism; 
• “I Believe in Family”: What Would Gemma Do?; 
• Sex, Marriage, and the MC; 
• “The Balance Between the Passion in his Heart and the Reason in his Mind”: John Teller’s Philosophy of the “Outlaw”; 
• The Existential Freedom of the Open Road; 
• The IRA: Terrorists or Freedom Fighters?; 
• Jax, Opie, and the Meaning of Masculinity; 
• Personal Identity through Narrative; 
• Is Selling Drugs Really Worse Than Running Guns?; 
• A “Charming” Little Polis: SAMCRO and the Value of Community;
• Tattoos and Body Modification as Personal Expression and Markers of Identity; 
• Tara Knowles, Medical Ethics, and the Responsibility of Doctors; 
• Is True Love Possible Without Virtue?: Clay, Gemma, and Aristotle’s Philosophy of Philia; 
• “Men Take Care of Business”: The Responsibilities of Men Within the Family; 
• “The Rest Stays Buried”: Is Honesty Always the Best Policy?; 
• Might, Right, and the Problem of Leadership in MC; 
• “Men of Mayhem”: Why is Killing a Source of Prestige?; 
• Are the Sons Good Guys or Bad Guys?: Moral Relativism and Moral Ambiguity; 
• SAMCRO and the Philosophy of War; 
• “The Rat Prince” and The Prince: Machiavelli Meets the MC; 
• “Violent by Nature”: Is Violence an Inevitable Aspect of the Human Condition?

Submission Guidelines:

1. Submission deadline for abstracts (100-500 words) and CV(s): August 13, 2012.
2. Submission deadline for drafts of accepted papers: October 15, 2012.

Kindly submit by e-mail (with or without Word attachment) to: George A. Dunn at [email protected].

Check out the series website: