Ender's Game and Philosophy

Kevin S. Decker is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean of the College of Arts, Letters, and Education at Eastern Washington University, USA. He specializes in researching American pragmatism, Continental philosophy, ethics, philosophy in popular culture, and social theory. Professor Decker has co-edited a string of books on the links between philosophy and popular culture, including Star Wars and Philosophy (2005, with Jason T. Eberl), Star Trek and Philosophy (2008, also with Jason T. Eberl), and, with Richard Brown, Terminator and Philosophy (Wiley-Blackwell 2009). William Irwin is Professor of Philosophy at King’s College in Pennsylvania. He originated the philosophy and popular culture genre of books as coeditor of the bestselling The Simpsons and Philosophy and has overseen recent titles including Superman and Philosophy, Black Sabbath and Philosophy, and Spider-Man and Philosophy.

• Introduction: What Is Ender’s Game? 1Part One THIRD: The Making of an Impossible Child 71 “The Teachers Got Me Into This”: Educational Skirmishes … with a Pinch of Freedom 9Cam Cobb2 Illusions of Freedom, Tragedies of Fate: The Moral Development of Ender Wiggin 21Jeremy Proulx3 Xenocide’s Paradox: The Virtue of Being Ender 32Jeff Ewing4 Teaching to the Test: Constructing the Identity of a Space Commander 41Chad William TimmPart Two GAME: Cooperation or Confrontation? 535 The Enemy’s Gate Is Down: Perspective, Empathy, and Game Theory 55Andrew Zimmerman Jones6 War Games as Child’s Play 66Matthew Brophy7 Forming the Formless: Sunzi and the Military Logic of Ender Wiggin 78Morgan Deane8 Do Good Games Make Good People? 89Brendan P. SheaPart Three HIVE-QUEEN: All Together Now 99 9 Bugger All!: The Clash of Cultures in Ender’s Game 101Cole Bowman10 Why Ender Can’t Go Home: Philotic Connections and Moral Responsibility 112Brett Chandler Patterson11 Of Gods and Buggers: Friendship in Ender’s Game 124Jeffery L. NicholasPart Four WAR: Kill or Be Killed 13712 “I Destroy Them”: Ender, Good Intentions, and Moral Responsibility 139Lance Belluomini13 Ender’s Beginning and the Just War 151James L. Cook14 “You Had to Be a Weapon, Ender … We Aimed You”: Moral Responsibility in Ender’s Game 163Danielle Wylie15 The Unspoken Rules of Manly Warfare: Just War Theory in Ender’s Game 175Kody W. CooperPart Five HEGEMON: The Terrible Things Are Only About to Begin 18716 Locke and Demosthenes: Virtually Dominating the World 189Kenneth Wayne Sayles III17 Ender’s Dilemma: Realism, Neoliberalism, and the Politics of Power 202Ted Henry Brown and Christie L. Maloyed18 People Are Tools 212Greg LittmannConvening Authorities of the Court Martial of Colonel Hyrum Graff 224The Ansible Index 230