Ender's Game and Philosophy

"EnderOCOs Game," Orson Scott CardOCOs award-winning 1985 novel, has been discovered and rediscovered by generations of science fiction fans and young adult readers, banned and challenged in schools, assigned in high school English classes, and adopted as reading by the US Marine Corps. "Ender's Game" and its sequels explores rich themes?the violence and cruelty of children, the role of empathy in war, and the balance of individual dignity and the social good?with compelling elements of a coming-of-age story and exciting and immersive battle scenes.

"EnderOCOs Game and Philosophy" brings together over thirty philosophers to engage in wide-ranging discussion on the troubling, exciting, and fascinating issues raised in and amidst the excitement and fear of Orson Scott CardOCOs novels and Gavin HoodOCOs film.

Authors address issues such as:

the justifiability of pre-emptive strikes, how EnderOCOs disconnected and dispassionate violence is mirrored in todayOCOs drone warfare, whether the end of saving the species can justify the most brutal means, the justifiability of lies and deception in wartimes, how military schools produce training in virtue, how Ender as the ?good studentOCO is held to a different educational standard, which rules can be broken in games and which cannot, EnderOCOs world as a mirror of our own surveillance society, the moral hazards of child warriors, the value of EnderOCOs ability to sympathize with his enemies, the meaning of a ?hive-mind, OCO the limits of our ability to relate to one, the relationship between EnderOCOs story and CardOCOs Mormonism.

The authors of "EnderOCOs Game and Philosophy" challenge readers to confront and work through the conceptual and emotional challenges that "EnderOCOs Game" presents, bringing a new light on the idea of a just war, the virtues of the soldier, the nature of childhood, the social value and moral corruption of lies and deception, the practices of education and of leadership, and the serious work of playing games.