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An Ethical Guidebook to the Zombie Apocalypse: How to Keep Your Brain without Losing Your Heart
When your base camp is overrun by zombies, whom do you save if you cannot save everyone? Is it permissible to sacrifice one survivor to an undead horde in order to save a greater number of the living? Do you have obligations to loved ones who have turned?
These are some of the troubling ethical questions you might face in a zombie apocalypse. Bryan Hall uses situations like these to creatively introduce the foundational theories of moral philosophy. Covering major thinkers such as Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill, this is an introduction to Ethics like no other: a practical guidebook for surviving a zombie outbreak with your humanity intact. It shows you why moral reasoning matters as long as you still walk among the living.
The book is written entirely from the perspective of someone struggling to survive in a world overrun by the undead. Each chapter begins with graphic art and a “field exercise” that uses a story from this world to illustrate an ethical problem. By considering moral controversies through the unfamiliar context of a zombie apocalypse, the morally irrelevant factors that get in the way of resolving these controversies are removed and you can better answer questions such as:
· Do we have a moral obligation to help those less fortunate than ourselves?
· Is it ever morally permissible to intentionally kill an innocent person?
· Are non-rational but sentient beings morally considerable?
Equipped with further reading sections and overviews of the theories that you would usually cover in an introductory Ethics course, this one-of-a-kind primer critically evaluates different procedures for moral action that you can use not only to survive but flourish in an undead world.
These are some of the troubling ethical questions you might face in a zombie apocalypse. Bryan Hall uses situations like these to creatively introduce the foundational theories of moral philosophy. Covering major thinkers such as Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill, this is an introduction to Ethics like no other: a practical guidebook for surviving a zombie outbreak with your humanity intact. It shows you why moral reasoning matters as long as you still walk among the living.
The book is written entirely from the perspective of someone struggling to survive in a world overrun by the undead. Each chapter begins with graphic art and a “field exercise” that uses a story from this world to illustrate an ethical problem. By considering moral controversies through the unfamiliar context of a zombie apocalypse, the morally irrelevant factors that get in the way of resolving these controversies are removed and you can better answer questions such as:
· Do we have a moral obligation to help those less fortunate than ourselves?
· Is it ever morally permissible to intentionally kill an innocent person?
· Are non-rational but sentient beings morally considerable?
Equipped with further reading sections and overviews of the theories that you would usually cover in an introductory Ethics course, this one-of-a-kind primer critically evaluates different procedures for moral action that you can use not only to survive but flourish in an undead world.
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
240 pages, Paperback
Published December 12, 2019
10 people are currently reading
82 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 2, 2023
Unexpected, but fantastic
September 8, 2023
allow me to paint you a picture of what my reading experience was like:
little ol' me sees this book listed at my local library under the ethics tag, and I, a burnt-out individual who's trying to see if the brain up here is still able to process academic texts and concepts, think to myself that this seems like a fairly funky premise to learn ethics from. I am under the impression that the author, a fancy professor of ethics, will be writing speculative vignettes of the ethical dilemmas that may be encountered during a zombie apocalypse from his perspective as said fancy professor of ethics. I am anticipating large and dense blocks of text attempting to enlighten me about complex ideas that have been debated for centuries and likely will continue to be well into the future.
little ol' me opens this book, and for the next 20 days, over 215-ish pages, I am regaled with a richly detailed post-apocalyptic world where each survivor is presented with increasingly difficult choices as the years go on. This book is written like a work of fiction, and just happens to discuss a wide range of moral and ethical formulations of decision-making in between horrifying stories of what people experience facing hordes of the undead. Our narrator walks us through each scenario that people they've travelled with or they themself have experienced, and reflects on their own hopeless situation surrounded by zombies as they write this "manuscript" for any survivors who may come across the body in the future. Absolute genius! Kinda giving me the heeby jeebies!
I have come out of this mildly scarred due to the gore and horror factors that I was simply unprepared for. I have ALSO come out of this so much more knowledgeable, and for that, I'm quite thankful.
anyhoo, loved it :)
little ol' me sees this book listed at my local library under the ethics tag, and I, a burnt-out individual who's trying to see if the brain up here is still able to process academic texts and concepts, think to myself that this seems like a fairly funky premise to learn ethics from. I am under the impression that the author, a fancy professor of ethics, will be writing speculative vignettes of the ethical dilemmas that may be encountered during a zombie apocalypse from his perspective as said fancy professor of ethics. I am anticipating large and dense blocks of text attempting to enlighten me about complex ideas that have been debated for centuries and likely will continue to be well into the future.
little ol' me opens this book, and for the next 20 days, over 215-ish pages, I am regaled with a richly detailed post-apocalyptic world where each survivor is presented with increasingly difficult choices as the years go on. This book is written like a work of fiction, and just happens to discuss a wide range of moral and ethical formulations of decision-making in between horrifying stories of what people experience facing hordes of the undead. Our narrator walks us through each scenario that people they've travelled with or they themself have experienced, and reflects on their own hopeless situation surrounded by zombies as they write this "manuscript" for any survivors who may come across the body in the future. Absolute genius! Kinda giving me the heeby jeebies!
I have come out of this mildly scarred due to the gore and horror factors that I was simply unprepared for. I have ALSO come out of this so much more knowledgeable, and for that, I'm quite thankful.
anyhoo, loved it :)
May 26, 2020
Referencing everything from Plato to the Walking Dead this is a guide to ethics to remind you about everything you forgot from your college ethics class or that you always wanted to know. This is a college level text but made more interesting by framing ethical situations in a zombie apocalypse.
I thought it translated well to many issues in our current pandemic. This book presents dilemmas that challenge us to think about what our own ethical choices would be as we learn from the great moral thinkers from Kant to Mill. Moral reasoning matters maybe today more than ever.
Favorite Quotes: In the pursuit of self-interest, too many of us have sacrificed our capacity to reason in accordance with virtue. In so doing, we become worse than the creatures we most fear-zombies-since we are morally responsible for the viciously depraved monsters we have become. Much better it is to be undead than the evil living.
Find An Ethical Guidebook to the Zombie Apocalypse How to Keep Your Brain without Losing Your Heart at Westminster Public Library today!
And if you are in search of new books to read, try our services, What Do I Read Next. Our library staff are standing by to create a personalized recommendation list for you!
I thought it translated well to many issues in our current pandemic. This book presents dilemmas that challenge us to think about what our own ethical choices would be as we learn from the great moral thinkers from Kant to Mill. Moral reasoning matters maybe today more than ever.
Favorite Quotes: In the pursuit of self-interest, too many of us have sacrificed our capacity to reason in accordance with virtue. In so doing, we become worse than the creatures we most fear-zombies-since we are morally responsible for the viciously depraved monsters we have become. Much better it is to be undead than the evil living.
Find An Ethical Guidebook to the Zombie Apocalypse How to Keep Your Brain without Losing Your Heart at Westminster Public Library today!
And if you are in search of new books to read, try our services, What Do I Read Next. Our library staff are standing by to create a personalized recommendation list for you!
April 19, 2020
I’d truly give the book 4 and 1/2 🌟 s - as its philosophy can get a bit deep, sometimes putting over the head of an average non-philosophy major. However, using zombies to define and describe philosophical theory is a good one; I was especially impressed with the sections discussing zombie-personhood, I had never put that much thought into the right-to-life of zombies before. An interesting introduction to philosophical thinking, but more on par with the knowledge level of a philosophy student, than a student of zombie lore.
February 4, 2020
Bryan Hall’s ethical guidebook to the zombie apocalypse is a delightfully offbeat hybrid of fiction and philosophical analysis that works on several levels. On one level, it’s a tale of a lone philosophy professor surviving the zombie apocalypse and their reflections on the situations
they encounter as they navigate survival and its psychological effects. On a second level, it’s an
introductory text to the issues and major philosophical figures that pervade every introductory philosophy course, retold through the lens of the zombie apocalypse. On a third level, it’s a commentary on those issues as well as contemporary politics. These levels work together
extraordinarily well, and the whole book is a delight to read.
they encounter as they navigate survival and its psychological effects. On a second level, it’s an
introductory text to the issues and major philosophical figures that pervade every introductory philosophy course, retold through the lens of the zombie apocalypse. On a third level, it’s a commentary on those issues as well as contemporary politics. These levels work together
extraordinarily well, and the whole book is a delight to read.
May 7, 2024
As someone who has never formally taken an ethics or philosophy class I found the book to be easy to follow and quite informative. I feel like I learned the basics of ethical principles and was engaged while doing it.
October 30, 2021
yeah so while this had some gems, it was just so hard to get through. huge chunks of text that i had to read multiple times to understand. wanted to like it, but it just bored me a bit.
January 2, 2025
a really fun read, and inspired me to rewatch the good place haha.
i liked their take on responses to a zombie apocalypse in the field exercises, and the further reading lists after each chapter have greatly expanded my 'to read/watch' lists with cool new zombie stuff.
at times the explanations of small distinctions in the ethical theories didn't really make sense to me, but i'm not someone well-versed in philosophy, so it might've just been me lol. really enjoyed it though and was a good palette cleanser between my usual habits
i liked their take on responses to a zombie apocalypse in the field exercises, and the further reading lists after each chapter have greatly expanded my 'to read/watch' lists with cool new zombie stuff.
at times the explanations of small distinctions in the ethical theories didn't really make sense to me, but i'm not someone well-versed in philosophy, so it might've just been me lol. really enjoyed it though and was a good palette cleanser between my usual habits
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews