How I Met Your Mother and Philosophy: Being and Awesomeness (Popular Culture and Philosophy, 81)

Pay with

About How I Met Your Mother And Philosophy: Being And

Product Description Like philosophy itself, How I Met Your Mother has everyone thinking. Have you ever wondered why you identify so strongly with Barney despite the fact that he’s such a douche? Or why your life story doesn’t make sense until you know the ending—or at least, the middle? Or where the Bro Code came from and why it’s so powerful? How I Met Your Mother and Philosophy answers all these questions and a whole lot more. Twenty of the awesome-est philosophers ever congregated in one bar have come together to quaff a few drinks and analyze this most awesomely philosophical of sit-coms. They poke, prod, and sniff at the misdeeds of Goliath National Bank, the ontology of waiting to get slapped, the epistemology of sexual attraction, why the Platinum Rule is to never love thy neighbor, the authenticity of censoring yourself, why future Ted’s opinions matter to present-day Ted, and whether it’s irrational to wait for the Slutty Pumpkin. This book shows that viewers of How I Met Your Mother and Philosophy know that philosophy is much more than a song and dance routine. About the Author Lorenzo von Matterhorn is the pseudonym of a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and Senior Research Associate at Peterhouse College, Cambridge University (UK). He is the author of Between Perception and Action and Aesthetics as Philosophy of Perception (both forthcoming in 2013 from Oxford University Press), and editor of Perceiving the World (Oxford University Press, 2010). Before taking up full-time philosophy he was well known as a movie critic, and served on the jury at several major international film festivals. He lives in Antwerp, Belgium and Cambridge, England. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Excerpt from chapter 1: Empathy for the Devil: Why on Earth Do We Identify with Barney? by Bence Nanay Kids, Barney Stinson is the devil. At least, that’s what Ted says in ‘Belly full of turkey’ (season 1, episode 9). And in ‘Brunch’ (season 2, episode 3), he is genuinely surprised that Barney is allowed to enter a church. But even if he is not the devil, he is a truly awful person. Truly. But then why do we all love him so much? More precisely, why is it so tempting to identify or empathize or emotionally engage with him? Just how awful is Barney? Unspeakably awful. A couple of biographical details: • He sold a woman (The Bracket, season 3, episode 14) • He poisoned the drinking water in Lisbon (The goat, season 3, episode 17) • He has shady dealings with the most oppressive regime on Earth (Chain of screaming, season 3, episode 15) But maybe it’s just his line of work. We know that Tony Soprano’s job is not exactly charity-work, but we have not problem identifying and emotionally engaging with him. Yet, he is in many ways a choirboy compared to Barney Stinson. Barney can be as awful with his best friends as in his dealings at Goliath National Bank. Again, a few examples: • When facing the dilemma of landing a much needed job for his ‘best friend’ (who had just been left at the altar) or having an office in a dinosaur-shaped building, he chooses the latter. (Woo girls, season 4, episode 8) • He takes revenge on the girl who broke his heart many years later by sleeping with her and then never calling her back (Game night, season 1, episode 14) • Gives a fake apology to Robin, whom he just broke up with, merely in order to score another girl (Playbook, season 5, episode 8) • Spends years planning his revenge on Marshall for noticing that he has a bit of marinara sauce on his tie (The exploding meatball sub, season 6, episode 20) • Sets his best friend’s coat on fire (The pineapple incident, season 1, episode 10) • Pulls a nasty and tactless prank on Robin when he pretends to be Robin’s dad on the phone, whose call he knows she is eagerly awaiting (Disaster averted, season 7, episode 9) • Actively puts Robin down when she meets Ted’s parents for the first time (Brunch, sea