Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy: Raiding the Temple of Wisdom

by Jon Cogburn (Editor), Mark Silcox (Editor)

Overview

This volume will convince readers that the swift ascent of the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons to worldwide popularity in the 1970s and 1980s is “the most exciting event in popular culture since the invention of the motion picture.”
Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy presents twenty-one chapters by different writers, all D&D aficionados but with starkly different insights and points of view. It will be appreciated by thoughtful fans of the game, including both those in their thirties, forties, and fifties who have rediscovered the pastime they loved as teenagers and the new teenage and college-student D&D players who have grown up with gaming via computer and console games and are now turning to D&D as a richer, fuller gaming experience.
The book is divided into three parts. The first, “Heroic Tier: The Ethical Dungeon-Crawler,” explores what D&D has to teach us about ethics and about how results from the philosophical study of morality can enrich and transform the game itself. Authors argue that it’s okay to play evil characters, criticize the traditional and new systems of moral alignment, and (from the perspective of those who love the game) tackle head-on the recurring worries about whether the game has problems with gender and racial stereotypes. Readers of Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy will become better players, better thinkers, better dungeon-masters, and better people.
Part II, “Paragon Tier: Planes of Existence,” arouses a new sense of wonder about both the real world and the collaborative world game players create. Authors look at such metaphysical questions as what separates magic from science, how we express the inexpressible through collaborative storytelling, and what the objects that populate Dungeons and Dragons worlds can teach us about the equally fantastic objects that surround us in the real world.
The third part, “Epic Tier: Leveling Up,” is at the crossroads of philosophy and the exciting new field of Game Studies. The writers investigate what makes a game a game, whether D&D players are artists producing works of art, whether D&D (as one of its inventors claimed) could operate entirely without rules, how we can overcome the philosophical divide between game and story, and what types of minds take part in D&D.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780812697964
Publisher:	Open Court Publishing Company
Publication date:	09/11/2012
Series:	Popular Culture and Philosophy , #70
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	4.78(w) x 8.82(h) x 0.69(d)

Table of Contents

Rolling a Wisdom Check vii

I Heroic Tier

The Ethical Dungeon-Crawler 1

1 Aristotle's Dungeon Greg Littmann 3

2 Does Dungeons and Dragons Refute Aristotle? David Merli 17

3 Beyond Chaotic Good and Lawful Evil? Jon Cogburn 29

4 Chaotic Good in the Balance Chris Bateman 49

5 Elegy for a Paladin Mark Silcox 55

6 Being Evil E.M. Dadlez 65

7 It's Okay to Be Evil in Your Head Brandon Cooke 75

8 Elf Stereotypes James Rocha Mona Rocha 91

9 Dude, Where Are the Girls? Heidi M. Olson 107

II Paragon Tier

Planes of Existence 119

10 The Laboratory of the Dungeon Mark Silcox Jonathan Cox 121

11 Expressing the Inexpressible Jon Cogburn Neal Hebert 133

12 The Worlds of Dungeons and Dragons Timothy Morton 151

13 A Role of the Dice Levi Bryant 165

14 The Secret Lives of Elven Paladins Monica Evans 179

III Epic Tier

Leveling Up 193

15 What Dungeons and Dragons Is and Why We Do It Carl Ehrett Sarah Worth 195

16 Why Dungeons and Dragons Is Art Pete Wolfendale Tim Franklin 207

17 The Rules of Imagination Chris Bateman 225

18 You Got Your Gameplay in My Role-Play! Adam Brackin 239

19 Justice Is Not Blind, Deaf, or Willing to Share Its Nachos Timothy Christopher 255

20 The Gunpowder Crisis Jason Rose 265

21 To Know My Character Better than He Knows Himself David Aldridge 279

Player Characters 293

References 299

Index 311