Family Guy and Philosophy

J. Jeremy Wisnewski is Assistant Professor at Hartwick College. He is the author of Wittgenstein and Ethical Inquiry: A Defense of Ethics as Clarification (2007) and The Politics of Agency: Toward a Pragmatic Approach to Philosophical Anthropology (2008). He is also the editor of The Office and Philosophy (Blackwell, 2008).

• Acknowledgments: These People Are Freakin’ Sweet viiiYou Better Not Read This, Pal: An Introduction to Family Guy and Philosophy 1J. Jeremy WisnewskiPart I Those Good Ole’ Fashion Values on Which We Used to Rely 31 Killing the Griffins: A Murderous Exposition of Postmodernism 5J. Jeremy Wisnewski2 Family Guy and God: Should Believers Take Offense? 16Raymond J. VanArragon3 Quagmire: Virtue and Perversity 27Shaun Miller4 Francis Griffin and the Church of the Holy Fonz: Religious Exclusivism and “Real” Religion 36David Kyle JohnsonPart II Lucky There’s a Family Guy! (And What a Family!) 495 Let Us Now Praise Clueless Men: Peter Griffin and Philosophy 51Jerry Samet6 Lois: Portrait of a Mother (Or, Nevermind Death, Motherhood is a Bitch) 59Stephanie Empey7 Mmmyez: Stewie and the Seven Deadly Sins 74Sharon M. Kaye8 The Other Children: The Importance of Meg and Chris 87P. Sue Dohnimm9 He Thinks He’s People: How Brian Made Personhood for the Dogs 99Daniel MalloyPart III He-He-He-He-He. You Expected More Lyrics, But You’re Getting Logic, Comedy, and The Logic of Comedy 11310 The Logic of Expectation: Family Guy and the Non Sequitur 115Jonah P. B. Goldwater11 What Are You Laughing At (And Why)? Exploring the Humor of Family Guy 128Andrew Terjesen12 Thinkin’ is Freakin’ Sweet: Family Guy and Fallacies 139Robert Arp13 The Simpsons Already Did It! This Show is a Freakin’ Rip-Off! 149Shai Biderman and William J. DevlinPart #F1 Family Problems 16114 Is Brian More of a “Person” than Peter? Of Wills, Wantons, and Wives 163Mark D. White15 The Ego is a Housewife Named Lois 175Robert Sharp16 The Lives and Times of Stewie Griffin 186Tuomas Manninen17 Kierkegaard and the Norm (MacDonald) of Death 198Adam BubenAppendix: Everything You Ever Needed to Know about Meg Griffin, as Compiled by the Contributors 209Notes on Contributors: What the Deuce!?! They’re Real! (Most of Them, Anyway) 210Index: He-He-He-He-He-He .You Read Books 214                                1 That’s right, freakin’ #F. What are you, some kind of mathematician?

“Maddening in its irreverent audacity, this book reminds me of an old girlfriend: iconoclastic and argumentative, occasionally insane but always entertaining, with a soul of which Stewie could be proud. I couldn’t pull myself away!”Dave Baggett, editor of Harry Potter and Philosophy and Hitchcock and Philosophy“This book doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever, which obviously means it’s brilliant.”Joey Green, author of The Bathroom Professor: Philosophy on the Go "Author cooks up a big bowl of philosophy stew while exposing the Family Guy for what it is; a beacon of post-modernism."TLChicken.com “It is a rare opportunity to philosophically deconstruct life's absurdities … . We can laugh in the face of life's troublesome ideas and attempt to understand them.” Associated Content