Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing (Popular Culture and Philosophy 1)

Designed for philosophers as well as readers with no particular philosophical background, the essays in this lively book are grouped into four amusing acts. Act One looks at the four Seinfeld characters through a philosophical lens and includes Jerry and Socrates: The Examined Life? Act Two examines historical philosophers from a Seinfeldian standpoint and offers Plato or Nietzsche? Time, Essence, and Eternal Recurrence in Seinfeld. Act Three, Untimely Meditations by the Water Cooler, explores philosophical issues raised by the show, such as, Is it rational for George to do the opposite? And Act Four, Is There Anything Wrong with That?, discusses ethical problems of everyday life using Seinfeld as a basis. Seinfeld and Philosophy also provides a guide to Seinfeld episodes and a chronological list of the philosophers cited in this book. Act I : The characters, aka "The New York four" -- Jerry and Socrates : the examined life? / William Irwin -- George's failed quest for happiness : an Aristotelian analysis / Daniel Barwick -- Elaine Benes : feminist icon or just one of the boys? / Sarah E. Worth -- Kramer and Kierkegaard : stages on life's way / William Irwin -- Act II : Seinfeld and the philosophers -- Making something out of nothing : Seinfeld, sophistry, and the Tao / Eric Bronson -- Plato or Nietzsche? : Time, essence and eternal recurrence in Seinfeld / Mark T. Conard -- Seinfeld, subjectivity, and Sartre / Jennifer McMahon -- Wittgenstein and Seinfeld on the commonplace / Kelly Dean Jolley -- Act III : Untimely mediations by the water cooler -- The Costanza maneuver : is it rational for George to "do the opposite"? / Jason Holt -- Peterman and the ideological mind : paradoxes of subjectivity / Norah Martin -- The secret of Seinfeld's humor : the significance of the insignificant / Jorge J.E. Garcia -- Act IV : Is there anything wrong with that? -- Seinfeld and the moral life / Robert A. Epperson -- Virtue ethics and TV's Seinfeld / Aeon J. Skoble -- The final episode : is doing nothing something? / Theodore Schick, Jr. An introduction to philosophy through the lens of "Seinfeld" asks, "Is it rational for George to do the opposite?" and "Is there really anything wrong with that?" and other important topics.