Philosophy In The Twilight Zone

Utilizing a series of essays examining the broad philosophical concepts embedded in Rod Serling's series, The Twilight Zone, Philosophy in The Twilight Zone provides a platform for further philosophical discussion.


Features essays by eminent contemporary philosophers concerning the over-arching themes in The Twilight Zone, as well as in-depth discussions of particular episodes
Fuses popular cult entertainment with classical philosophical perspectives
Acts as a guide to unearthing larger questions - from human nature to the nature of reality and beyond - posed in the series
Includes substantial critical and biographical information on series creator Rob Serling

Noël Carroll is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, a former President of the American Society for Aesthetics, and a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship. He has published numerous books including the Philosophy of Horror (1990) and A Philosophy of Mass Art (1999). He has also worked as a journalist and has written five documentary pictures.
Lester H. Hunt is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has also taught at Carnegie-Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, and The John Hopkins University. He has written extensively on ethics, political philosophy, and the aesthetics of film, and is the author of Nietzsche and the Origins of Virtue (1990) and Character and Culture (1998). He is currently working on a book on anarchy and the justification of the state.

"If you've ever felt lost in The Twilight Zone, this book is for you. Then, again, when you read what these philosophers have to say you may want to stay!"
–William Irwin, King's College
"The Twilight Zone smuggled philosophy onto television in the form of a series of ingenious mind-teasers, seizing the audience's imagination. Now Noёl Carroll and Lester Hunt have put together a stimulating collection of papers that decipher the puzzles and explore the philosophical themes. The result is a rich and thoughtful re-appraisal of a rightly famous attempt to make drama out of philosophy. Rod Serling would be tickled and proud."
–Colin McGinn, University of Miami

Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Lester H. Hunt
1. “And Now, Rod Serling, Creator of The Twilight Zone”: The Author as Auteur: Lester H. Hunt
2. Tales of Dread in The Twilight Zone: A Contribution to Narratology: Noël Carroll
3. Frame Shifters: Surprise Endings and Spectator Imagination in The Twilight Zone: Carl Plantinga
4. The Treachery of the Commonplace: Mary Sirridge
5. Where is the Twilight Zone?: Richard Hanley
6. Existentialism and Searching for an Exit: Susan L. Feagin
7. Through the Twilight Zone of Nonbeing: Two Exemplars of Race in Serling’s Classic Series: Lewis R. Gordon
8. Blending Fiction and Reality: “The Odyssey of Flight 33": Thomas E. Wartenberg
9. Epistemology at 20,000 Feet: Sheila Lintott
10. Rationality and Choice in “Nick of Time”: Aeon J. Skoble
11. “The Little People”: Power and the Worshipable: Aaron Smuts
12. Nothing in the Dark: Deprivation, Death, and the Good Life: James S. Taylor
Index