Ender's Game and Philosophy: Genocide Is Child's Play

Popular Culture and Philosophy #80

by D.E. Wittkower (Editor), Lucinda Rush (Editor)

Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card’s award-winning 1985 novel, has been discovered and rediscovered by generations of science fiction fans, even being adopted as reading by the U.S. Marine Corps. Ender's Game and its sequels explore rich themes — the violence and cruelty of children, the role of empathy in war, and the balance of individual dignity and the social good — with compelling elements of a coming-of-age story. Ender’s Game and Philosophy brings together over 30 philosophers to engage in wide-ranging discussion on issues such as: the justifiability of pre-emptive strikes; how Ender’s disconnected and dispassionate violence is mirrored in today’s drone warfare; whether the end of saving the species can justify the most brutal means; the justifiability of lies and deception in wartime, and how military schools produce training in virtue. The authors of Ender’s Game and Philosophy challenge readers to confront the challenges that Ender’s Game presents, bringing new insights to the idea of a just war, the virtues of the soldier, the nature of childhood, and the serious work of playing games.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 12, 2013

About the author

D.E. Wittkower received a Ph.D in Philosophy from Vanderbilt University in 2006. His training concentrated on German philosophy and the history of value theory (ethics, aesthetics, social/political philosophy), and his research has concentrated primarily on issues of ethics, technology, and political philosophy. Prior to accepting the position of Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Old Dominion University, he taught at Coastal Carolina University, Sweet Briar College, Virginia Tech, University of Missouri - St. Louis, and University of Maine - Orono.

He is contributing editor of Facebook and Philosophy (Open Court, in press), Mr. Monk and Philosophy (Open Court, 2010), and iPod and Philosophy (Open Court, 2008); contributor to Applying Care Ethics to Business (Springer, forthcoming 2011), Audiobooks, Literature, and Sound Studies (Routledge, forthcoming 2011), Encyclopedia of Social Networking (SAGE, forthcoming 2010), Putting Knowledge to Work and Letting Information Play (Center for Digital Discourse and Culture, forthcoming 2010), The Psychology of Facebook (Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, forthcoming 2010), Anime and Philosophy (Open Court, 2010), Ethical Issues in E-Business (IGI Global, 2010), and Radiohead and Philosophy (Open Court, 2009); and author of articles appearing in Social Identities and Fast Capitalism.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, a pretty good collection of essays regarding Ender's Game and how the seminal sci-fi novel entertains some very crucial and complex concepts of philosophy. Some essays, expectedly, are better than others: a few nearly seem as if they were quickly written up to submit for the call for papers for this anthology and lack heart or any real, deep, interest in the novel however most are quite good and some are outstanding. Of the poorer ones, a common complaint I had was that they simply were not developed as fully as they could have been: the essay that applies the philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas to Ender and the one that explores the aspect of monitoring in the novel both could have been taken further, however, there are several really great contributions covering everything from applying queer theory to Ender to explorations of the military tactics in the novel to the issue of the lies Ender is told by his teachers and commanding officers. For anyone seriously interested in the "Enderverse" and Orson Scott Card's development of Ender Wiggin as a character and the world around him, this is a great place to start.

[Becka Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saving place to write a better review later..but upon first read through it was a very good look at a highly interesting study of Ender's Game.... more to follow

[Collin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote a chapter in this, so clearly it's my unbiased opinion that you should buy it.

[Heather Browning · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a lot of interesting stuff in here that I didn't know a lot about - political philosophy, ethics of war etc. But some of it felt a bit same-y, like a lot of essays covered the same ground.

[Mary Foxe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skimmed some, read others. One of the stronger collections in the series. Some of the essays went places Idid not expect but I nonetheless found fascinating.

[BookDragon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ender's Game was my first introduction to sci-fi so coming across this book was a treat. There are some intresting essays to read and ponder over, and reach a deeper understanding on the themes of the book that I haven't considered before.