I Watch, Therefore I Am: From Socrates to Sartre, the Great Mysteries of Life as Explained Through Howdy Doody, Marcia Brady, Homer Simpson, Don Draper, and other TV Icons

by Gregory Bergman, Peter Archer

Overview

Let Gilligan's Island teach you about situational ethics.
Learn about epistemology from The Brady Bunch.
Explore Aristotle's Poetics by watching 24.

Television has grappled with a wide range of philosophical conundrums. According to the networks, it's the ultimate source of all knowledge in the universe! So why not look to the small screen for answers to all of humanity's dilemmas?

There's not a single issue discussed by the great thinkers of the past that hasn't been hashed out between commercials in shows like Mad Men and Leave It to Beaver. So fix yourself a snack, settle into the couch, grab the remote...and prepare to be enlightened.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440527340
Publisher:	Adams Media
Publication date:	06/18/2011
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Writer, comedian, and longtime couch potato Gregory Bergman is the author of the bestselling WTF? humor series as well as five additional books. He published his first book, The Little Book of Bathroom Philosophy, while studying philosophy at Hunter College. When he is not writing or performing stand-up, he watches TV--a lot.

Peter Archer is an editor at Adams Media and the author of The Quotable Intellectual.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Chapter 1 What's the World Made Of? Donuts! And Beer! 1

Chapter 2 Protagoras, Gorgias, Captain Kirk, and Denny Crane 11

Chapter 3 Socrates: The Sergeant Schultz of Ancient Greece 21

Chapter 4 Plato Is the New American Idol 29

Chapter 5 Aristotle Loves Lucy 39

Chapter 6 Charlie Harper's Non-Epicurean Lifestyle 47

Chapter 7 St. Augustine's Highway to Heaven 55

Chapter 8 Scully Shaves Mulder with Ockham's Razor 65

Chapter 9 Larry Hagman Dreams of Descartes 77

Chapter 10 Locke versus Hobbes, or The Brady Bunch Takes on Survivor 89

Chapter 11 Can or Can't Kant Like Vampires? 101

Chapter 12 Reading Hegel in Outer Space 111

Chapter 13 John Stuart Mill the Utilitarian Heroism of Dexter Morgan 117

Chapter 14 Karl Marx and Adam Smith, Meet Alex P. Keaton 129

Chapter 15 Dr. Gregory House and the Nietzschean Superman 143

Chapter 16 Don Draper, George Constanza, and the Non-Meaning of Life 155

Chapter 17 Jersey Shore's "The Situation": The Randian Ideal Man with a Tan? 167

Chapter 18 Earl Hickey Meets Karma in My Name Is Earl 177

Chapter 19 Lost But Not Least 189

Conclution 203

Appendix A Glossary of Philosophical Terms 207

Appendix B Who's Who in Philosophy 217

Bibliography 237

Index 240