Legend of Zelda and Philosophy

LUKE CUDDY is a professor in the philosophy department at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, CA. He’s edited several pop-culture and philosophy books including BioShock and Philosophy and HALO and Philosophy. He also occasionally publishes on Substack (substack.com/@lukecuddy) and Medium (medium.com/@lukecuddy).

• Notes on Contributors ixAcknowledgments xvIntroduction: Hey! Listen! 1Luke CuddyPart 1 Fusing Philosophical Kinstones: Community and Beauty 51 Hyrule and the State of Nature 7Devon Cass2 The Hylian Condition: Link Isn’t the Hero Alone 15Joshua Hunt3 Majora’s Mask and the Carnivalesque 23Siobhan Lyons4 The Stark and Terrible Beauties of Hyrule 31Devon Brickhouse- BrysonPart 2 Lenses of Truth 415 The Legend of the Zelda Map: A Look at Truth in Games and Reality 43Luke Cuddy6 Are Robbie and Purah Mad Scientists? Scientific Norms in the Era of the Wilds 53Will Rawleigh Copyrighted Material7 Gaining the Strength to Go Alone: Educational Philosophy in Hyrule 65Bobbie L. Eicher and David A. Joyner8 Shift of the Kingdom: Zelda’s History and the Essence of the Video Game Saga 75Federico Dal Barco9 Time Travel and Paradoxes in Ocarina of Time 85Brandon Stariha and Adam P. TaylorPart 3 Playing with Din’s Fire: Ethics and Virtue 9510 Solving the Puzzle of Cheating: Honor and Integrity in Hyrule 97Charles Joshua Horn11 Leave the Bokoblins Alone: On the Humane Treatment of Monsters 107Kyle York12 Wisdom, Courage, and Power: The Unity of Virtue in Hyrule 115James William Lincoln13 Personhood beyond the Hyliocene in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom 127Zoe L. Tongue14 “The Right Thing … What Is It? I Wonder …”: Moral Perspectives in Majora’s Mask 135Luc PelletierPart 4 “I Am Error”: Meaning, Freedom, and Destiny 14315 Can Link Do Otherwise? Prophecy, Fate, and Free Will in Zelda 145Joshua Tepley16 Is Link’s Life Meaningful? 155Kiki Berk17 Eternal Return of the Link 165Tim Jones18 Being- Link: Thrown into Hyrule 173Walter Barta19 Understanding Nature by Reflecting on Zelda 183Timothy BrownPart 5 “Take Any Road You Want”: The Experience of Zelda 19120 The Joy of Puzzle- Solving: Why Zelda Games Are So Engaging 193Jason Rose21 Remix and Restrictive Creativity in Tears of the Kingdom 203Seth M. Walker22 Intermittent Flow in Hyrule 213Casey Rentmeester23 Kingdoms of Light and Dread in the Depths: Exploring the Aesthetic and Moral Power of Myth in the Legends of Zelda 221Jeremy E. Scarbrough24 Hiking in Hyrule: Immersion and the Suspension of Disbelief 231Alexander Christian

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