Ep 23: The Walking Dead and Hobbes; Better off dead?

Welcome one and all to Professor Metal's Irate Debate and Calamitous Commentary with the Philosophical Chain Gang.

 

Today's Episode is The Walking Dead and Hobbes: Better off Dead?

 

Sean and Ryver talk about what The Walking Dead is

The Philosophers discuss why zombies are not the focus of the show

Ryver brings in how this relates to the work of Thomas Hobbes

Sean talks about how Hobbes looks at human nature

Ryver and Bruce expand on this view

Sean discusses Hobbes as a response to Rousseau

Bruce talks about books that try to highlight Rousseau's ideas

Ryver and Sean bring up Lord of the Flies and the Ring of Gyges, which very much supports Hobbes

The Philosophers talks about the themes from Hobbes in The Walking Dead and other post-apocalyptic media

Ryver and Bruce discuss how this relates to Game Theory and the Cold War

Sean talks about the psychology that would lead to confrontational behaviour between the groups in The Walking Dead

Professor Metal presents questions about Canadian Zombies

The Philosophers discuss other post-apocalyptic media

Sean looks at how media wherein the Social Contract is stripped away looks at what happens when this occurs.

Bruce and Sean discuss how that plays out in the history of the real world

Ryver and Sean talk about how this relates to our current social contract

Bruce brings up that the economics of survival in the small groups in The Walking Dead make interpersonal conflict a luxury they really cannot afford

Sean discusses the importance of approval within the group as a powerful motivator

Ryver and Bruce discuss the motivations and advantages of the formation of societies

Sean talks about the other side of the post-apocalyptic coin: when our civilization takes off ahead of us, such as the storyline of Terminator

Ryver and Bruce expand on this point

Sean brings up that which enemy we fight in a given media is, perhaps, not as important as the fact that we are fixated on having media with some kind of enemy

Bruce and Sean raise the question of what we are like without civilization, and how what we think the answer is tells us something about ourselves

Ryver takes the last word to talk about The Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, and why he disagrees with some ideas raised therein.

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