Ender's Game and Philosophy: Genocide Is Child's Play (Popular Culture and Philosophy Book 80)

Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card’s award-winning 1985 novel, has been discovered and rediscovered by generations of science fiction fans and young adult readers, banned and challenged in schools, assigned in high school English classes, and adopted as reading by the US Marine Corps. Ender's Game and its sequels explores rich themes—the violence and cruelty of children, the role of empathy in war, and the balance of individual dignity and the social good—with compelling elements of a coming-of-age story and exciting and immersive battle scenes. Ender’s Game and Philosophy brings together over thirty philosophers to engage in wide-ranging discussion on the troubling, exciting, and fascinating issues raised in and amidst the excitement and fear of Orson Scott Card’s novels and Gavin Hood’s film. Authors address issues such as: the justifiability of pre-emptive strikes, how Ender’s disconnected and dispassionate violence is mirrored in today’s drone warfare, whether the end of saving the species can justify the most brutal means, the justifiability of lies and deception in wartimes, how military schools produce training in virtue, how Ender as the “good student” is held to a different educational standard, which rules can be broken in games and which cannot, Ender’s world as a mirror of our own surveillance society, the moral hazards of child warriors, the value of Ender’s ability to sympathize with his enemies, the meaning of a “hive-mind,” the limits of our ability to relate to one, the relationship between Ender’s story and Card’s Mormonism. The authors of Ender’s Game and Philosophy challenge readers to confront and work through the conceptual and emotional challenges that Ender’s Game presents, bringing a new light on the idea of a just war, the virtues of the soldier, the nature of childhood, the social value and moral corruption of lies and deception, the practices of education and of leadership, and the serious work of playing games. Transmissions from the Ansible Rules of Engagement 01. Push 1 for Remote War | Tim Blackmore 02. What Would Saint Thomas Aquinas Do? | Jennifer Swanson 03. Winning Without Honor | Shawn McKinney 04. Is Ender Wiggin a Cheater Cheater Bugger Eater? | Joan Grassbaugh Forry Minds and Bodies 05. Where Does Ender's Consciousness End? | Yochai Ataria 06. Hive-Queens and Harms | Paul Neiman and Daniel Druvenga 07. Humanity beyond Humanity | Jordan Pascoe 08. The Enemy's Gate Is Down! | Jeremy Heuslein Who Is Ender? 09. Ender-Shiva, Lord of the Dance | Joshua Hall 10. How Queer Is Ender? | Nicolas Michaud and Jessica Watkins 11. Is Ender a Mormon? | James Holt Masks and Deceptions 12. They're Screwing Around with Us! | Don Fallis 13. The Lying Game | Randall M. Jensen 14. And Who Is Demosthenes? | Alexander Halvais Child Development 15. Every Breath You Take | Ashley Shew 16. Being and Learning | Stephen Aguilar 17. Playing by the Rules | Lucinda Rush 18. Snakes and Ladders, Not Squad Attack | Louis Melancon A Question of Character 19. Peter's Game | Jason P. Blahuta 20. Sympathy and the Perfect Soldier | D.E. Wittkower 21. Ender's Power | Delia Dumitrica 22. Weaponized Virtue | David M. WIlmington Thinking in the Future Tense 23. Lies Were More Dependable than the Truth | Collin Pointon 24. Is Ender a Murderer? | Kelly Sorensen and Thomas Sorensen 25. Killing Children | Abraham P. Schwab Battle School Officer Directory A Peek into the Hive Mind