Contributors: Hosts and Guests viii
Acknowledgments: “Figuring Out How It All Works” xv
Introduction: Taking Sides in Westworld 1
Part I “You Said This Place Was a Game” 3
1 On Playing Cowboys and Indians 5
Don Fallis
2 A Special Kind of Game: The Portrayal of Role‐play in
Westworld 15
Nicholas Moll
3 Humans and Hosts in Westworld: What’s the Difference? 26
Marcus Arvan
Part II “You’re Only Human, After All” 39
4 Crossing the Uncanny Valley: What it Means to be Human in
Westworld 41
Siobhan Lyons
5 Revealing Your Deepest Self: Can Westworld Create or Corrupt
Virtue? 50
Jason T. Eberl
6 Westworld: From Androids to Persons 61
Onni Hirvonen
Part III “We Can’t Define Consciousness Because Consciousness Does Not Exist” 71
7 Turing’s Dream and Searle’s Nightmare in Westworld 73
Lucía Carrillo González
8 What Is It Like to Be a Host? 79
Bradley Richards
9 Does the Piano Play Itself? Consciousness and the
Eliminativism of Robert Ford 90
Michael Versteeg and Adam Barkman
Part IV “Choices Hanging in the Air Like Ghosts” 103
10 Maeve’s Dilemma: What Does it Mean to Be Free? 105
Marco Antonio Azevedo and Ana Azevedo
11 A Place to Be Free: Writing Your Own Story in Westworld
114
Joshua D. Crabill
12 From William to the Man in Black: Sartrean Existentialism and
the Power of Freedom 125
Kimberly S. Engels
Part V “I’ve Always Loved a Great Story…Lies That Told a Deeper Truth” 137
13 Hideous Fictions and Horrific Fates 139
Madeline Muntersbjorn
14 Narrating Gender, Gendering Narrative, and Engendering
Wittgenstein’s “Rough Ground” in Westworld 150
Lizzie Finnegan
15 The Observer(s) System and the Semiotics of Virtuality in
Westworld’s Characters: Jonathan Nolan’s Fictions as a Conceptual
Unity 162
Patricia Trapero‐Llobera
16 What Does Bernard Dream About When He Dreams About His Son?
173
Oliver Lean
Part VI “I Choose to See the Beauty” 183
17 The Dueling Productions of Westworld: Self‐Referential Art or
Meta‐Kitsch? 185
Michael Forest and Thomas Beckley‐Forest
18 Beauty, Dominance, Humanity: Three Takes on Nudity in
Westworld 196
Matthew Meyer
19 Sci‐Fi Western or Ancient Greek Tragedy? 206
Caterina Ludovica Baldini
Part VII “You Can’t Play God Without Being Acquainted With the Devil” 217
20 Of Hosts and Men: Westworld and Speciesism 219
François Jaquet and Florian Cova
21 Violent Births: Fanon, Westworld, and Humanity 229
Anthony Petros Spanakos
22 The Wretched of Westworld: Scientific Totalitarianism and
Revolutionary Violence 239
Dan Dinello
Index 252
JAMES B. SOUTH is Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean for Faculty in the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences at Marquette University.
KIMBERLY S. ENGELS is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Molloy College in Rockville Centre, New York where she teaches courses in ethics, biomedical ethics, and contemporary philosophy.
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