Bob Dylan and Philosophy: It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Thinking) (Popular Culture and Philosophy Book 17)

The legions of Bob Dylan fans know that Dylan is not just a great composer, writer, and performer, but a great thinker as well. In Bob Dylan and Philosophy, eighteen philosophers analyze Dylan's ethical positions, political commitments, views on gender and sexuality, and his complicated and controversial attitudes toward religion. All phases of Dylan's output are covered, from his early acoustic folk ballads and anthem-like protest songs to his controversial switch to electric guitar to his sometimes puzzling, often profound music of the 1970s and beyond. The book examines different aspects of Dylan's creative thought through a philosophical lens, including personal identity, negative and positive freedom, enlightenment and postmodernism in his social criticism, and the morality of bootlegging. An engaging introduction to deep philosophical truths, the book provides Dylan fans with an opportunity to learn about philosophy while impressing fans of philosophy with the deeper implications of his intellectual achievements. Contents Liner Notes Acknowledgments Side 1 1. Planet Waves: Dylan’s Symposium -DOUG ANDERSON 2. “I Used to Care, but Things Have Changed”: Passion and the Absurd in Dylan’s Later Work -RICK ANTHONY FURTAK 3. Who Killed Medgar Evers? -AVERY KOLERS 4. Great White Wonder: The Morality of Bootlegging Bob -JAMES C. KLAGGE 5. Just Like a Woman: Dylan, Authenticity, and the Second Sex -KEVIN KREIN and ABIGAIL LEVIN 6. “Far Between Sundown’s Finish An’ Midnight’s BrokenToll”: Enlightenment and Postmodernism in Dylan’s Social Criticism -JORDY ROCHELEAU 7. “To Live Outside the Law,You Must Be Honest”: Freedom in Dylan’s Lyrics -ELIZABETH BRAKE 8. We Call It a Snake: Dylan Reclaims the Creative Word -RUVIK DANIELI and ANAT BILETZKI Side 2 9. Bob Dylan’s Truth -MICHAEL CHIARIELLO 10. The Free Will in Bob Dylan -MARTIN VAN HEES 11. “I Got My Bob DylanMask On”: Bob Dylan and Personal Identity -PETER VERNEZZE and PAUL LULEWICZ 12. With God (and Socrates and Augustine) on Our Side -JAMES S. SPIEGEL 13. Busy Being Born Again: Bob Dylan’s Christian Philosophy -FRANCIS J. BECKWITH 14. Language on the Lam(b):Tarantula in Dylan and Nietzsche -DAVID GOLDBLATT andEDWARD NECARSULMER IV 15. When I Paint My Masterpiece: What Sort o fArtist Is Bob Dylan?-THEODORE GRACYK 16. You Who Philosophize Dylan: The Quarrel between Philosophy and Poetry in the Songs of Bob Dylan -KEVIN L. STOEHR The Bob Dylan Discography The Mongrel Dogs Reciting the Alphabet