[Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture 36] • The Hobbit and Philosophy by Irwin, William -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Contents Title Copyright Dedication Acknowledgments: Thag You Very Buchx Introduction: Never Laugh at Live Philosophers Part One: Discover Your Inner Took

Chapter 1: The Adventurous Hobbit

A Hobbit’s Progress Bilbo’s Growth in Wisdom Bilbo’s Growth in Virtue

Chapter 2: “The Road Goes Ever On and On”: A Hobbit’s Tao

The Fellowship of the Tao Another Way of Thinking of the Way: Seven Taoist Masters Gold-Is-Heavy Empty-Mind

Chapter 3: Big Hairy Feet: A Hobbit’s Guide to Enlightenment

“Not So Hasty” Walk for a Cure Walk This Way Mind Your Steps

Chapter 4: Bilbo Baggins: The Cosmopolitan Hobbit

Hobbits in Kansas An Ancient New Way to Live in the World Dwarves as the “Other” Everyone Wants a Mithril Coat Learning from Other Cultures Can We Really Live Like Bilbo?

Part Two: The Good, The Bad, and The Slimy

Chapter 5: The Glory of Bilbo Baggins

Glory in the West and Middle-Earth Beauty First! Then Glory! The Making and Unmaking of Hobbits

Chapter 6: Pride and Humility in The Hobbit

Virtue in Middle-Earth Proud to Be a Hobbit Humble Pie and Soul Food Humble Heroes

Chapter 7: “My Precious”: Tolkien on the Perils of Possessiveness

The Social Costs of Greed The Personal Costs of Greed Queer Lodgings

Chapter 8: Tolkien’s Just War

War! Huh! What Is It Good For? The Battle of Five Armies Was Tolkien Really a Just-War Theorist?

Chapter 9: “Pretty Fair Nonsense”: Art and Beauty in The Hobbit

Tolkien and the Art for Art’s Sake Movement “Just for the Fun of It” “They Too May Perceive the Beauty of Eä” “The Love of Beautiful Things”

Chapter 10: Hobbitus Ludens: Why Hobbits Like to Play and Why We Should, Too

Football, Golf, and Other Games Hobbits Play What Play Is Not The Goodness of Play Adventurous Play: Bilbo’s Education Playing with Fire: Gandalf and the Goblins Playing by the Rules: Riddles and Ethics Recreation and Subcreation The Limits of Play The Professor at Play

Part Three: Riddles and Rings

The Will to Magic Tolkien’s Vision of Nature and the Modern World

Chapter 12: Inside The Hobbit: Bilbo Baggins and the Paradox of Fiction

Paradoxes in the Dark Confusticate and Bebother! Quasi-Bewutherment Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire? Living with Bewutherment

Chapter 13: Philosophy in the Dark: The Hobbit and Hermeneutics

The Rules of Riddles Bilbo’s End: Intentionalism Riddle Me This, Professor Hirsch Gollum and Gadamer What’s in Bilbo’s Pocketses? Out of the Frying Pan

Part Four: Being There and Back Again

Chapter 14: Some Hobbits Have All the Luck

Aristotle and the Riddle of Luck Leaf by Nagel The Good, the Bad, and the Lucky Better to Be Lucky and Good

Chapter 15: The Consolation of Bilbo: Providence and Free Will in Middle-Earth

What Has It Got in Its Pocketses? The Problem of Divine Foreknowledge Freedom and the Music Tolkien’s Boethian Solution

Chapter 16: Out of the Frying Pan: Courage and Decision Making in Wilderland

Riddles, Dilemmas, and Luck, Oh My! By the Light of the Trolls: Expected Utility Theory Playing Hide-and-Seek with the Wood-Elves: Conditional Probability To Boldly Go—but Not Too Boldly

Chapter 17: There and Back Again: A Song of Innocence and Experience

There but Not Quite Back Again Some Who Wander Are Lost, or Growing Up Is Hard to Do Striving to Be Original, Again and Again Back Again to the Beginning

Contributors: Our Most Excellent and Audacious Contributors Index: The Moon Letters