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Index
Cover
Contents
Title
Copyright
Foreword
A Raven from House Wiley
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: “You Win or You Die”
Chapter 1: Maester Hobbes Goes to King’s Landing
You Are Selfish and Dangerous
The Realm Needs a King
Hobbes Takes the Maester’s Chain
The Horrors of War
Robert’s Rebellion
Lion and Direwolf, Dragon and Leviathan
Chapter 2: It is a Great Crime to Lie to a King
Lying and Deceiving in Westeros
Lord Stark’s Lies
Is Lying Worse than Deceiving?
Betraying Trust and Shifting Responsibility
The Ruses of War
Bad Consequences and Broken Oaths
Chapter 3: Playing the Game of Thrones
Virtù and Fortuna
The Downfall of Kings
Morality and Dependency
Always Wear a Mask
Those Who Make Their Own Luck
A Final Lesson
Chapter 4: The War in Westeros and Just War Theory
The Justness of Resorting to War
Just Cause
Right Intention
Proper Authority
Last Resort
Probability of Success
Proportionality of Loss versus Gain
Justness in Conducting War
Discrimination between Combatants and Noncombatants
Appropriate Treatment of Prisoners of War
No Reprisals
Respect the Rights of the State’s Own Citizens
A Just War?
Part Two: “The Things I Do For Love”
Chapter 5: Winter is Coming!
“Is the Honorable Person Happy?”
“Is the Devious Person Happy?”
“I Do Not Know Which of You I Pity Most”
“Life is Not a Song, Sweetling. You May Learn That One Day to Your Sorrow”
“When You Play the Game of Thrones, You Win or You Die. There is No Middle Ground”
What Game of Thrones Teaches Us about Happiness
Chapter 6: The Death of Lord Stark
“If the Wicked Do Not Fear the King’s Justice Then You Have Put the Wrong Man in Office”
“The Day Will Come When You Need Them to Respect You, Even Fear You a Little”
“Most Men Would Rather Deny a Hard Truth Than Face It”
Threats to the Realm
“The Madness of Mercy”
Chapter 7: Lord Eddard Stark, Queen Cersei Lannister
“You Never Could Lie for Love nor Honor, Ned Stark”
The Madness of Mercy—The Price of Honesty
“When You Play the Game of Thrones, You Win or You Die”: The Rewards of Egoism
“And Pray That He is the Man I Think He Is”
“How Are You Any Different from Robert, or Me, or Jaime?”
Chapter 8: It Would Be a Mercy
“Give Me a Good Clean Death”
“You Love Your Children, Do You Not?”
“When Will He Be as He Was?”
“This is Not Life”
Part Three: “Winter is Coming”
Chapter 9: Wargs, Wights, and Wolves That Are Dire
What is It Like to Be a Direwolf?
Wargs and Consciousness
Descartes and Direwolves
Wargs Again
What about the Wights?
Back to the Wights
Chapter 10: Magic, Science, and Metaphysics in A Game of Thrones
Let’s Get Physical
Science in A Game of Thrones
Magic and Causation
Science and Magic in Westeros
Magic and Metaphysics
Chapter 11: “You Know Nothing, Jon Snow”
Not Knowing That You Know Nothing
What Even a Blind Man Can See
Calibrating Confidence in What We (Don’t) Know
Justified True Belief
A Trip to King’s Landing
Back to the Wall
The Horn of Winter
Chapter 12: “Why is the World So Full of Injustice?”
Is the Problem of Evil Really a Problem?
But What is Evil?
Augustine and Catelyn Defend the Faith of the Seven
Problems with the Solutions
David Hume and the Impotence of the Old Gods
Blaming the Gods for Natural Evil
R’hllor and Natural Evil
Gods Don’t Care about Men
Part Four: “The Man Who Passes the Sentence should Swing the Sword”
Chapter 13: Why Should Joffrey Be Moral If He Has Already Won the Game of Thrones?
The World Will Be Exactly As You Want It to Be (“Lord Snow”)
A Man with Great Ambition and No Morals, I Wouldn’t Bet against Him (“Fire and Blood”)
The Truth Will Be What You Make It (“Lord Snow”)
You’ve a Long Way to Travel and In Bad Company (“Fire and Blood”)
Our Way is the Old Way (“Winter is Coming”)
I Must Be One of the Few Men in This City Who Doesn’t Want to Be King (“Fire and Blood”)
Chapter 14: The Moral Luck of Tyrion Lannister
The Virtues and Vices of Tyrion Lannister
It’s Out of the King’s Hand’s Hands
The Many Faces of Moral Luck
Kant to the Rescue?
Moral Luck and the Last Laugh
Chapter 15: Dany’s Encounter with the Wild
To Each His Own?
Moral Relativism
The Diversity of Ethical Codes
Love and Incest
Moral Relativism
The Dothraki Wedding Ceremony
Pillage and Plunder
The Morality of the Seven Kingdoms and Beyond
Chapter 16: “There Are No True Knights”
The Dark Side of Chivalry
Chivalry is Misguided
Sansa and her Songs
The Death of Modern Chivalry: Good Riddance
Women, Not Wards: What Has Humanity Made of the Human Female?
Part Five: “Stick them With the Pointy End”
Chapter 17: Fate, Freedom, and Authenticity in A Game of Thrones
The Freedom to Be or Not to Be
Que Sera, Sera (What Will Be, Will Be)
Fulfilling Fate
Becoming Who You Are
Chapter 18: No One Dances the Water Dance
Virtues and the Good Life
Martial Arts and Virtues
The Water Dance
Zen and the Sword Master from Braavos
Ninjutsu and the Faceless Men
The Faceless Dance of Virtue
Chapter 19: The Things I Do For Love
What is Game Theory?
House Rules
Eros’s Aim
The Nature of the Game
The Dwarf’s Gamble: Non-Zero-Sum Games and Repeated Play
Through the Eyes of Love
Chapter 20: Stop the Madness!
The Archaeologist and the Mad Fool
Pointing a Finger at the Crazies
Meet the Mayor of Crazytown
We Had to Murder the Mad Murderer!
Technologies of the Self
Am I Sane? I Think I Am. . . . I Think I Am. . . . I Think I Am. . . .
Everything is Dangerous
Contributors
Index
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