Star Wars and Philosophy (Popular Culture and Philosophy Series) - Kevin Decker [1]
Just the Facts
“Judge Me by My Size, Do You?”
Truth and the Marketplace
“Unexpected This Is, and Unfortunate”
“Trust Your Feelings”
Chapter 17 - Religious Pragmatism through the Eyes of Luke Skywalker
“A Lot of Simple Tricks and Nonsense”
“I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing”
“I Don’t Believe It” . . . “That Is why You Fail”
“A New Hope”
Masters of the Jedi Council
The Phantom Index
Copyright Page
Popular Culture and Philosophy™ Series Editor: William Irwin
VOLUME 1
Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing (2000)
Edited by William Irwin
VOLUME 2
The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D’oh! of Homer (2001)
Edited by William Irwin, Mark T. Conard, and Aeon J. Skoble
VOLUME 3
The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real (2002)
Edited by William Irwin
VOLUME 4
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale (2003)
Edited by James South
VOLUME 5
The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All (2003)
Edited by Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson
VOLUME 6
Baseball and Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Batter’s Box (2004)
Edited by Eric Bronson
VOLUME 7
The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am (2004)
Edited by Richard Greene and Peter Vernezze
VOLUME 8
Woody Allen and Philosophy: You Mean My Whole Fallacy Is Wrong? (2004)
Edited by Mark T. Conard and Aeon J. Skoble
VOLUME 9
Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts (2004)
Edited by David Baggett and Shawn E. Klein
VOLUME 10
Mel Gibson’s Passion and Philosophy: The Cross, the Questions, the Controversy (2004)
Edited by Jorge J.E. Gracia
VOLUME 11
More Matrix and Philosophy: Revolutions and Reloaded Decoded (2005)
Edited by William Irwin
VOLUME 12
Star Wars and Philosophy (2005)
Edited by Kevin S. Decker and Jason T. Eberl
IN PREPARATION:
Superheroes and Philosophy (2005)
Edited by Tom Morris and Matt Morris
The Atkins Diet and Philosophy (2005)
Edited by Lisa Heldke, Kerri Mommer, and Cindy Pineo
The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy (2005)
Edited by Gregory Bassham and Jerry Walls
Hip-Hop and Philosophy (2005)
Edited by Derrick Darby and Tommie Shelby
To Suzanne and Jennifer, You’re the brains, sweethearts!
Heroes of Rogue Squadron
It takes three years to make a Star Wars movie, from script to screen. Fortunately, it didn’t take nearly as long to put this volume together, and the credit for that achievement goes to a number of persons. First of all, our contributors, who raced full-throttle down the Death Star trench of writing and editing to score bulls-eyes with the chapters they produced. Next, of course, are the good people at Open Court who saw the Force-potential in our proposal and supported us all the way: David Ramsay Steele, Carolyn Madia-Gray, and Grand Master Bill Irwin.
As the volume progressed, a number of colleagues and friends took time from their bounty-hunter training seminars to review drafts of various chapters or influenced the volume in myriad other ways: Dave Baggett, Susan Bart, Greg Bassham, Gregory Bucher, Seetha Burtner, Donald Crosby, Keith Decker, Mario Intino, Jr., Jennifer Kwon, Chris Pliatska, William Rowe, Scott Rubarth, Charlene Haddock Siegfried, James South, Kevin Timpe, C. Joseph Tyson, and Wayne Viney. An extra special “thank you” goes to Carlea Alfieri and Andrew Clyde for reading and offering their insights on each chapter as it neared completion.
Obviously, our families, including the secret twin sisters we don’t know about yet, deserve a great deal of credit for their inspiration and patience with our other life in that galaxy far, far away. We dedicate this opus to our wives Suzanne and Jennifer, and wish to express our love and devotion to our children Kennedy, Ethan, Jack, and August, through whose eyes we see the Star Wars saga and life itself in whole new ways.
The Force Is with You . . . but You’re Not a Jedi Yet
Now this