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Stephenie Meyer's wildly popular Twilight is a young adult vampire romance series, in which teenaged Bella falls for a vampire, Edward, and is drawn into his and his family's morally gray universe. Bella, Edward, and their family and friends have faced countless dangers and philosophical dilemmas in the four novels of the series, and this is the first book to parse them. Twilight and Philosophy will answer these and many other questions: What do the struggles of Edward and his family of vegetarian vampires to control their biological urge for human blood say about free will? Are vampires morally absolved if they kill only animals and not people? Why does Plato think that Bella should choose Jacob, a werewolf and rival for her affections? Should Edward use his natural ability to read minds? From a feminist perspective, can Edward be a romantic hero or is he just a stalker?
About the author
William Irwin is Herve A. LeBlanc Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of Philosophy at King's College, Pennsylvania. Irwin's latest book is The Free Market Existentialist: Capitalism without Consumerism (2015). Irwin's first book, Intentionalist Interpretation: A Philosophical Explanation and Defense (1999), was nominated for the American Philosophical Association Young Scholar's Book Prize. Irwin is best known for having originated the philosophy and popular culture genre of books with Seinfeld and Philosophy (1999), The Simpsons and Philosophy (2001), and The Matrix and Philosophy (2002). He was editor of these books and then General Editor of the Popular Culture and Philosophy Series through Open Court Publishing. In 2006, Irwin left Open Court to become the General Editor of The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series, which includes Metallica and Philosophy (2007)and Black Sabbath and Philosophy (2012), among other volumes. Irwin first theorized the philosophy and pop culture genre in his article Philosophy as/and/of Popular Culture in Irwin and Gracia eds. Philosophy and the Interpretation of Popular Culture (2006).
