Star Wars and Philosophy Read online

  Table of Contents

  Popular Culture and Philosophy Series Editor: William Irwin

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Heroes of Rogue Squadron

  The Force Is with You . . . but You’re Not a Jedi Yet

  Part I - “May The Force Be with You”

  Chapter 1 - “You Cannot Escape Your Destiny” (Or Can You?): Freedom and ...

  “Clouded This Boy’s Future Is”

  “Everything Is Proceeding as I Had Foreseen”

  “He’s Got to Follow His Own Path”

  “This One a Long Time Have I Watched”

  Chapter 2 - Stoicism in the Stars: Yoda, the Emperor, and the Force

  Appearance versus Reality: Jester or Jedi Master?

  Stoicism and the Virtues of the Sage

  The Logic of the Dark Side

  “Control, Control, You Must Learn Control”

  Chapter 3 - The Far East of Star Wars

  “Looking? Found Someone You Have”

  “Don’t Give In to Hate: That Leads to the Dark Side”

  “Great Warrior? Wars Not Make One Great”

  Chapter 4 - Moral Ambiguity in a Black-and-White Universe

  “What Good’s a Reward if You Ain’t Around to Use It?”

  “This Deal Is Getting Worse All the Time”

  “Together . . . We Can Destroy the Sith”

  “I’m a Jedi . . . I Know I’m Better Than This”

  “You Know . . . What They’re Up Against”

  Part II - “Try Not—Do or Do Not”

  Chapter 5 - The Aspiring Jedi’s Handbook of Virtue

  The Old Republic and the Older Republic

  A Balancing Act

  Entering the Deep, Dark Cave

  The Right Kind of Love

  Is Brainwashing Ethically Sanitary?

  The Jedi Model

  Chapter 6 - “A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy”: Star Wars and the Problem ...

  Something Wicked This Way Comes. But From Whence Does It Come?

  “One All-Powerful Force Controlling Everything”

  “If Once You Start Down the Dark Path . . .”

  The Fate of Evil after the Overthrow of the Empire

  Chapter 7 - “Be Mindful of the Living Force”: Environmental Ethics in Star Wars

  Wookiees and Mynocks and Hutts, Oh My!

  Value in Nature

  “May The Force Be with You”: Lessons from the Jedi

  “Mudhole? Slimy? My Home This Is”: Jedi Living in the Natural World

  Culture versus Nature

  Restoring Balance to the Force

  Chapter 8 - Send In the Clones: The Ethics of Future Wars

  Cloning Gets a Bum Rap

  Getting into Your Genes

  Different Strokes for Different Folks

  War: What Is It Good For?

  To Be All You Can Be, or Not?—That Is the Question

  Send in the Clones!

  Part III - “Don’t Call Me a Mindless Philosopher!”

  Chapter 9 - A Technological Galaxy: Heidegger and the Philosophy of Technology ...

  Heidegger on Technology

  “An Elegant Weapon”: The Lightsaber as Ready-To-Hand

  Yoda as Being-in-the-Dagobah System

  Enframing and the Eye of the Empire

  The Enframing of Anakin Skywalker

  Only a Jedi Can Save Us: Forgetting and Recollecting

  Chapter 10 - “If Droids Could Think . . .”: Droids as Slaves and Persons

  “He’s Quite Clever, You Know . . . For a Human Being”

  “If Droids Could Think, There’d Be None of Us Here, Would There?”

  “I Am Fluent in Over Six Million Forms of Communication”

  “You’ve Been a Great Pal . . . I’ll Make Sure Mom Doesn’t Sell You”

  It’s Not Our Lot in Life!

  Chapter 11 - “Size Matters Not”: The Force as the Causal Power of the Jedi

  The Source of the Jedi’s Power

  “Size Matters Not”

  The Power that Keeps On Giving

  “There’s [Not] One All-Powerful Force Controlling Everything”

  “May The Force Be with You”

  Chapter 12 - The Force Is with Us: Hegel’s Philosophy of Spirit Strikes Back at ...

  Mythic Journey of the Hero

  Spirit: Hegel’s Distillation of the History of Religion

  Anakin Skywalker as the Chosen One

  The Force of Love

  Part IV - “There’s Always a Bigger Fish”

  Chapter 13 - “What Is Thy Bidding, My Master?”: Star Wars and the Hegelian ...

  Masters and Slaves: Who Rules Whom?

  An Empire of Fear and Trembling

  Chapter 14 - By Any Means Necessary: Tyranny, Democracy, Republic, and Empire

  Galactic Politics for Dummies

  Fear as an Ally

  Power in the Hands of the Virtuous Few

  Palpatine’s Legacy

  Chapter 15 - Humanizing Technology: Flesh and Machine in Aristotle and The ...

  “I Am Fluent in Six Million Forms of Communication”

  “I Thought They Smelled Bad on the Outside”

  “Luminous Beings Are We . . . Not This Crude Matter”

  Chapter 16 - “A Certain Point of View”: Lying Jedi, Honest Sith, and the ...

  Just the Facts

  “Judge Me by My Size, Do You?”

  Truth and the Marketplace

  “Unexpected This Is, and Unfortunate”

  “Trust Your Feelings”

  Chapter 17 - Religious Pragmatism through the Eyes of Luke Skywalker

  “A Lot of Simple Tricks and Nonsense”

  “I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing”

  “I Don’t Believe It” . . . “That Is why You Fail”

  “A New Hope”

  Masters of the Jedi Council

  The Phantom Index

  Copyright Page

  Popular Culture and Philosophy™ Series Editor: William Irwin

  VOLUME 1

  Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing (2000)

  Edited by William Irwin

  VOLUME 2

  The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D’oh! of Homer (2001)

  Edited by William Irwin, Mark T. Conard, and Aeon J. Skoble

  VOLUME 3

  The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real (2002)

  Edited by William Irwin

  VOLUME 4

  Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale (2003)

  Edited by James South

  VOLUME 5

  The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All (2003)

  Edited by Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson

  VOLUME 6

  Baseball and Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Batter’s Box (2004)

  Edited by Eric Bronson

  VOLUME 7

  The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am (2004)

  Edited by Richard Greene and Peter Vernezze

  VOLUME 8

  Woody Allen and Philosophy: You Mean My Whole Fallacy Is Wrong? (2004)

  Edited by Mark T. Conard and Aeon J. Skoble

  VOLUME 9

  Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts (2004)

  Edited by David Baggett and Shawn E. Klein

  VOLUME 10

  Mel Gibson’s Passion and Philosophy: The Cross, the Questions, the Controversy (2004)

  Edited by Jorge J.E. Gracia

  VOLUME 11

  More Matrix and Philosophy: Revolutions and Reloaded Decoded (2005)

  Edited by William Irwin

  VOLUME 12

&nbs
p; Star Wars and Philosophy (2005)

  Edited by Kevin S. Decker and Jason T. Eberl

  IN PREPARATION:

  Superheroes and Philosophy (2005)

  Edited by Tom Morris and Matt Morris

  The Atkins Diet and Philosophy (2005)

  Edited by Lisa Heldke, Kerri Mommer, and Cindy Pineo

  The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy (2005)

  Edited by Gregory Bassham and Jerry Walls

  Hip-Hop and Philosophy (2005)

  Edited by Derrick Darby and Tommie Shelby

  To Suzanne and Jennifer, You’re the brains, sweethearts!

  Heroes of Rogue Squadron

  It takes three years to make a Star Wars movie, from script to screen. Fortunately, it didn’t take nearly as long to put this volume together, and the credit for that achievement goes to a number of persons. First of all, our contributors, who raced full-throttle down the Death Star trench of writing and editing to score bulls-eyes with the chapters they produced. Next, of course, are the good people at Open Court who saw the Force-potential in our proposal and supported us all the way: David Ramsay Steele, Carolyn Madia-Gray, and Grand Master Bill Irwin.

  As the volume progressed, a number of colleagues and friends took time from their bounty-hunter training seminars to review drafts of various chapters or influenced the volume in myriad other ways: Dave Baggett, Susan Bart, Greg Bassham, Gregory Bucher, Seetha Burtner, Donald Crosby, Keith Decker, Mario Intino, Jr., Jennifer Kwon, Chris Pliatska, William Rowe, Scott Rubarth, Charlene Haddock Siegfried, James South, Kevin Timpe, C. Joseph Tyson, and Wayne Viney. An extra special “thank you” goes to Carlea Alfieri and Andrew Clyde for reading and offering their insights on each chapter as it neared completion.

  Obviously, our families, including the secret twin sisters we don’t know about yet, deserve a great deal of credit for their inspiration and patience with our other life in that galaxy far, far away. We dedicate this opus to our wives Suzanne and Jennifer, and wish to express our love and devotion to our children Kennedy, Ethan, Jack, and August, through whose eyes we see the Star Wars saga and life itself in whole new ways.

  The Force Is with You . . . but You’re Not a Jedi Yet

  Now this may shock you, but there’s an arcane, little-known quotation, one rich in meaning, that appears in every Star Wars movie: “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” In each episode of George Lucas’s “space opera,” one of the main characters expresses this basic existential anxiety.1 It’s an intuitive response to an undefined problem. Yet it has its root in the essentially philosophical thought that our relationship to the world is one of questioning. Questions sometimes emerge from wonder, sometimes from doubt. We stare up at the heavens, much as Luke did on Tatooine, and wonder about the extent of the universe, its origin, and its meaning. In a crisis of faith, much as Luke had when confronted by his parentage on Cloud City, we may doubt many of our firmly-held beliefs and preconceptions. We search our inner selves, as did Leia when Han was being lowered into the carbon-freezing chamber, and wonder about what it means to love or be virtuous. Sharing Han’s skeptical worldly point of view, we may doubt that we have any existence as a mind or soul after our bodily processes are nullified by death. We comb through our junkyard, much as Watto constantly does, and wonder whether there are formulas describing the variances of the value character of the products of labor.2

  But philosophy doesn’t have a monopoly on wonder or doubt. You could be in a state of wonder reflecting upon the birth of your twin children, or while viewing the new piece of art on your favorite Hutt’s wall. Similarly, you could be in doubt whether the modifications to your podracer are sufficient to allow you to be competitive in the Boonta Eve Race. In these cases, no philosophical questioning needs to occur. Philosophy begins with wonder but leads to thinking. The need to think things through, to change our mind and our environment, arises only because we get into sticky situations. Simple problems disclose their solutions almost immediately, like young Anakin’s uncanny ability to fix machines. More difficult ones require us to search among alternatives for a solution: Should Obi-Wan tell Luke the truth about his father from the start or wait until he matures? Should Qui-Gon use Jedi “mind tricks” on Boss Nass to secure transport from the Gungan city? Philosophical problems are often distinguished by the fact that the problem itself is unclear—we need to settle certain things about the world and ourselves, sometimes at the deepest levels, before we can “blow this thing and go home.”

  Now Star Wars doesn’t wear its philosophy on its sleeve—it doesn’t make clever allusions to Alice in Wonderland or the Kabbalah in an effort to jump-start the mind of the average viewer. Although these movies are primarily vehicles for action scenes and fantasy themes, they still involve characters reaching out and deeply within to solve problems that are significantly larger than themselves. In Star Wars, conflict is a constant, but it’s not fighting in the “wars” of the title that spurs the development of the main characters’ personalities—after all, “wars not make one great.” Instead, it’s the struggle to understand and overcome deep problems of identity, truth, freedom, and the tragic side of life that defines the rise, fall, and rise again of the Skywalker family and the impact they have on allies and enemies alike.

  Essentially, the Star Wars movies tell a simple story of tragedy, courage, and redemption. But under this simple guise the ageless questions of philosophy—many of which are examined in this book—derive new meaning when held against the background of its plot, colorful situations, and memorable characters. For example:• Are the virtues good because they are appreciated by the Jedi, or are they appreciated by the Jedi because they are good? (Plato)

  • Is Yoda a Jedi Master so great that a greater one can’t be conceived of? (Anselm)

  • Can Anakin commit himself as a chaste, unattached Jedi Knight, but just not yet? (Augustine)

  • As absolute ruler of a galaxy-wide Empire, is it better to be loved or feared? (Machiavelli)

  • Am I a mind, a body, or an overweight glob of grease? (Descartes)

  • How do we know the sun will rise on Alderaan tomorrow, even if it has done so every day since the beginning of time? (Hume)3

  • If Vader looks into the abyss, doesn’t the abyss also look back into him? (Nietzsche)

  • Is hell other Sith lords? (Sartre)

  • Who’s scruffy-lookin’? (Solo)

  Here, you’ll encounter thoughtful and lively discussion of these questions, but not hard-and-fast answers to them—don’t blame us, some of these questions have gone unanswered for over two thousand years! Judith Barad takes on the most ancient of these while exploring the virtues of the Jedi Order. Yoda is conceived of as a both a great Jedi Master and a wise Stoic sage by William Stephens. For Chris Brown, Anakin’s fall and redemption may be unavoidable if evil is needed for good to exist. Emperor Palpatine, in the eyes of Kevin Decker, is the galaxy’s most masterful practitioner of Machiavellian political arts. Robert Arp finds Descartes’s question about mind and body just as intriguing to ask about C-3PO and R2-D2 as of ourselves, and Jerome Donnelly concurs that droids may be more “human” than the humans in Star Wars. While we know the answer to the Alderaan question, Jan-Erik Jones finds similar cocktail party discussions about expected cause-and-effect relationships still unresolved on our planet—just what makes gravity work anyway? Of course, Darth Vader’s entire life is spent looking into the metaphorical abyss of darkness and evil, and occasionally into the literal abyss of space station reactor shafts; what this says about his moral character and capacity for redemption is the fascination of many in what follows. And while Sartre’s question regards three strangers trapped in a room with “no exit” for all eternity, Brian Cameron notes that it takes only two Sith to dance the pas de deux Hegelian “dialectic” that leads to mutual self-destruction.

  These are by no means the only philosophical questions raised and addressed by our Force-sensitive contributors. Using nature and other sentient beings m
erely as means to one’s own ends, valuing deception as a tool to bring about the greatest good, avoiding the dehumanizing influence of technology, finding the balance between love and duty, taking a leap of faith, and achieving the enlightened mind of “no mind” are also defining philosophical issues in Lucas’s galaxy and our own.

  This book came together with Socrates’s thought that wisdom, for humans as well as R5 droids, begins when we discover our own “bad motivators.” The preceding questions and the issues they raise are deep and challenging, but thinking about them can be rewarding and even fun to those whose thinking is slightly more precise than a stormtrooper’s aim. Consider this book a “Kessel Run” for your brain, and enjoy—you get bragging rights if you read the whole book in less than five parsecs!

  Part I

  “May The Force Be with You”

  The Philosophical Messages of Star Wars

  1

  “You Cannot Escape Your Destiny” (Or Can You?): Freedom and Predestination in the Skywalker Family

  JASON T. EBERL

  In The Phantom Menace, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn brings a nine-year-old boy, recently released from slavery and separated from his mother, before the Jedi Council to ask that he be trained in the ways of the Force. When the Council refuses to permit the boy’s training, Qui-Gon declares, “He is the Chosen One. You must see that.” To which Master Yoda replies, “Clouded this boy’s future is.”

  The boy is, of course, Anakin Skywalker—the future Darth Vader—and his being “the Chosen One” is based on a Jedi prophecy that refers to Anakin “bringing balance to the Force.” Approximately thirty-five years (Star Wars time) after this exchange, Anakin’s son, Luke, has nearly completed his training to become a Jedi Knight. After the deaths of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, Luke will be the “last of the Jedi” and the “last hope” for the galaxy to be saved from the tyrannical power of the Dark Side of the Force exercised by Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine. Yoda tells Luke, however, that he will be a Jedi only if he faces Darth Vader in battle a second time (their first battle having ended badly for Luke and his extremities!) Luke balks at the idea of killing his own father. But the apparition of Obi-Wan responds, “You cannot escape your destiny. You must face Darth Vader again.”