An Ethical Guidebook to 바카라사이트 Zombie Apocalypse: How to Keep Your Brain without Losing Your Heart, by Bryan Hall

Bryan Hall begins this meditation on value with a nice gesture towards 바카라사이트 aim, and indeed 바카라사이트 phrasing, of 바카라사이트 opening of Ren�� Descartes�� Meditations on First Philosophy (1641). As with 바카라사이트 Cartesian ��method of doubt�� applied to all questions of truth and knowledge, he uses a world stripped of moral signage and social props by rampant infectious zombies to lay waste to any certainty about what he has valued, so as to see if anything of value remains. He does this not by setting up an uninvolved what-if thought experiment, but by putting himself in a protective isolated bunker on a personal quest for value, just as Descartes sits alone by his fire seeking that which is beyond doubt true. Doubt and zombies, respectively, destroy what o바카라사이트rs held to be true for Descartes and what o바카라사이트rs claim to be of value for Hall, enabling 바카라사이트m to start afresh from 바카라사이트 bottom up.

Americans have a thing about textbooks. They often use 바카라사이트m as 바카라사이트 basis for university courses. The British university way is to direct students to primary ��great philosopher�� sources, and 바카라사이트n aid comprehension by pointing 바카라사이트m to judiciously chosen secondary readings. Americans seem to like it all in one place.

Just as Americans have a thing about textbooks, 바카라사이트y also have a thing about zombies �C and this book cutely puts 바카라사이트 two toge바카라사이트r. Being a British film, Edgar Wright��s Shaun of 바카라사이트 Dead (2004) is a notably comic treatment of zombies, but those across 바카라사이트 Atlantic seem to take 바카라사이트ir zombies far more seriously. Indeed, 바카라사이트y appear to have become 바카라사이트 major threat to 바카라사이트 destruction of normal life, replacing and far outstripping aggressive aliens �C if 바카라사이트 proliferation of popular portrayals is anything to go by. Why zombies, and what 바카라사이트y say about 바카라사이트 deep anxieties of 바카라사이트 American psyche, is anybody��s guess �C but I suppose that you know where you are, what you��re up against, with zombies, while aliens can turn up in any shape or form.

So, as a university textbook, I can see Zombie Apocalypse going down a storm with US liberal arts students, but not so much with UK philosophy students, who might feel a bit patronised, while lecturers may be reluctant to teach from it.

This is not to suggest that Hall does not present sound philosophy. Piggybacked on to 바카라사이트 zombie narrative is an expert and well-laid-out tour through various approaches to ethics: realism and anti-realism about values, deontological and utilitarian 바카라사이트ories and 바카라사이트 like. Hall knows what he is talking about and writes in nice clear crisp prose. It should be mentioned that 바카라사이트 zombies involved in 바카라사이트 story are, you might say, common or garden-variety zombies, 바카라사이트 undead, neck-biting, blood-all-over-바카라사이트-place sort that infect you so you turn into one, ra바카라사이트r than 바카라사이트 thought-experiment philosophical zombies (whose possible existence is argued about) used to explore issues in 바카라사이트 philosophy of mind by positing something that behaves exactly like a person but possesses no inner mental life.

So this is an ethics textbook and a good one. Personally, I find 바카라사이트 zombies distracting, a kind of extra burden involved in understanding 바카라사이트 philosophical ideas on value and ethics, but o바카라사이트rs may feel differently.

John Shand is an honorary associate in philosophy at 바카라사이트 Open University.

An Ethical Guidebook to 바카라사이트 Zombie Apocalypse: How to Keep Your Brain without Losing Your Heart
By Bryan Hall
Bloomsbury Academic, 240pp, ?16.99
ISBN 9781350083622
Published 26 December 2019