HOUSE AND PHILOSOPHY Is being nice overrated?
Are we really just selfish, base animals crawling across Earth in a meaningless existence?
Would reading less and watching more television be good for you?
Is House a master of Eastern philosophy or just plain rude?
Dr. Gregory House is arguably the most complex and challenging antihero in the history of television, but is there more to this self-important genius than gray matter and ego? This book takes a deeper look at House to reveal the philosophical underpinnings of this popular medical drama and its cane-waving curmudgeon’s most outrageous behavior. What emerges is a remarkable character who is part Sherlock Holmes, part Socratic philosopher, part Nietzschean superman, part Taoist rhetorician, and not at all as screwed up as you might think. With everything from Aristotle to Zen, House and Philosophy takes an engaging look at everyone’s favorite misanthropic genius and his team at Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital.
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Acknowledgments: What? You Want Me to Thank You? ix Introduction: Read Less, More TV: A Cranky, Slightly Rude Introduction 1 Henry Jacoby Part One “Humanity Is Overrated”: House on Life 1 Selfish, Base Animals Crawling Across the Earth: House and the Meaning of Life 5 Henry Jacoby 2 House and Sartre: “Hell Is Other People” 17 Jennifer L. McMahon 3 Is There a Superman in the House?: A Nietzschean Point of View 30 David Goldblatt 4 House and Moral Luck 39 Jane Dryden Part Two “Welcome to the End of the Thought Process:” House’s Logic and Method 5 The Logic of Guesswork in Sherlock Holmes and House 55 Jerold J. Abrams 6 It Explains Everything! 71 Barbara Anne Stock 7 The Sound of One House Clapping: The Unmannerly Doctor as Zen Rhetorician 84 Jeffrey C. Ruff and Jeremy Barris 8 “Being Nice Is Overrated”: House and Socrates on the Necessity of Conflict 98 Melanie Frappier 9 Is There a Daoist in the House? 112 Peter Vernezze Part Three “It Is the Nature of Medicine That You Are Going to Screw Up”: House And Ethical Principles 10 “You Care for Everybody”: Cameron’s Ethics of Care 125 Renee Kyle 11 To Intubate or Not to Intubate: House’s Principles and Priorities 137 Barbara Anne Stock and Teresa Blankmeyer Burke 12 House and Medical Paternalism: “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” 150 Mark R. Wicclair 13 If the End Doesn’t Justify the Means, Then What Does? 164 Catherine Sartin 14 House vs. Tritter: On the Clash of Theoretical and Practical Authority 174 Kenneth Ehrenberg Part Four “The Drugs Don’t Make Me High, They Make Me Neutral”: Virtues And Character on House 15 House and the Virtue of Eccentricity 187 John R. Fitzpatrick 16 Love: The Only Risk House Can’t Take 198 Sara Protasi 17 A Prescription for Friendship 209 Sara Waller 18 Diagnosing Character: A House Divided? 222 Heather Battaly and Amy Coplan Contributors: Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital Staff 239 Index: Index of Differential Diagnoses 247
HENRY JACOBY teaches philosophy at East Carolina University. He has published articles on the philosophy of mind and contributed to South Park and Philosophy. He lives in Goldsboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kathryn, and their two cats, Bunkai and Willow. WILLIAM IRWIN is a professor of philosophy at King's College, Pennsylvania. He has coedited The Simpsons and Philosophy and edited Seinfeld and Philosophy, The Matrix and Philosophy, and Metallica and Philosophy.
