The Ethics of Star Trek

FROM THE PUBLISHER

How would Immanuel Kant's insistence on autonomous altruism have impacted the Federation's dealings with the Borg? Did Aristotle's concept of equity account for why Kirk and Picard often violated the Prime Directive? Would Nietzsche have made a good starship captain?

As every fan of Star Trek knows, even in the brave new world of the 24th century, the deepest questions of morality and ethics will still need to be answered. In this enjoyable and engaging book, Dr. Judith Barad uses characters and plots from all from of the Star Trek television series to illustrate how our earthbound philosophers would handle the most challenging ethical questions in the universe. The perfect book for dedicated "Trekkers," or anyone looking for an approachable introduction to the teachings of the world's preeminent thinkers, The Ethics of Star Trek takes the matter of ethics and makes it practical, understandable￯﾿ﾽand fun.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

"One reason why Star Trek has endured... is that most of the stories... are indeed moral fables," say Barad, professor of philosophy at Indiana University, and Robertson, author of The Fugitive Recaptured. Using episodes from the four Star Trek TV series, they travel through various universes of ethical theory: in chapters with titles like "Kirk Finds the Golden Mean" and "Kirk and Kira Battle Evil: Christian Ethics," the authors offer useful and evenhanded introductions to the ethical theories of Aristotle, Epicurus and the Stoics, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and contemporary ethicist Tom Regan (known mostly for his writings on animal rights). For instance, Plato argued that the four virtues of temperance, courage, wisdom and justice would be the hallmarks of the ideal republic. Barad and Robertson contend that Spock and Kirk exhibit courage in an episode called "The Savage Curtain" when they fight off shadows of four of history's most evil creatures to prove that good is mightier than evil. "The Original Series most clearly reflects Aristotelian virtue;" the authors contend, The Next Generation exemplifies "the ethics of duty... Deep Space Nine, existentialism; and Voyager, Platonic virtue." Their effort to popularize a difficult subject occasionally results in egregious misreadings. Nietzsche, for instance, did not base his philosophy on the concept that "might makes right," as he abhorred every system of subjugation and suggested that we are all continually engaged in overcoming such systems. Overall, philosophically inclined Trekkies will want to beam this book up to their shelves, but it is hard to imagine that this book will boldly go where no other introduction to ethics has gone--among the broadest range of students and general readers. (Dec. 1) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Star Trek captains have to trade off the lives of their crews against the lives and plots of assorted aliens whose poorly repressed hostilities and devious personal arrangements would keep a planet-full of Freudian and Jungian analysts occupied for centuries. Barad, who chairs the philosophy department at Indiana University, and collaborator Robertson (The Fugitive Recaptured) explore the ethics of these encounters. They paint Captain Kirk as a devotee of a 20th-century English philosopher, Sir David Ross (The Right and the Good, 1930), who focused on "the supreme worth of conscientious action." Thus, Captain Kirk acknowledges Kantian universal duties but bends them a bit after studying the facts and assessing the consequences; later captains have become more rigidly Kantian. The authors face some difficult questions. How can Captain Kirk admire the pluralism of morals and politics in the galaxy without becoming a cultural relativist? And how can one both believe in rules and bend them? But they mostly ignore the fact that many good deeds depend on overt or threatened force wielded by a fleet of star ships roaming the galaxy in the name of a rather mysterious federation whose political arrangements are only vaguely sketched, though it has an American flavor. (Evil groups are "empires.") Can such force be justified? Can there really be galactic democracy? Is it just an accident that the ship was named Enterprise? A large public will take this book from the shelf. Some of them will find it worrying.--Leslie Armour, Univ. of Ottawa, Ont. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal