The Hobbit and Philosophy: For When Youve Lost Your Dwarves, Your Wizard, and Your Way

  J.R.R. Tolkien′s The Hobbit is one of the best–lovedmyths of all time, and Middle Earth provides the setting for awealth of philosophical conundrums. Discovering their inner Took,leading philosophers provide spellbinding observations into thismagical tale, debating: are adventures potentially life–changingevents or simply "nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things ?Should friends be dutiful to one another? Is it right to show mercyeven to those who deserve to die? From Elrond′s Last Homely House,to Gollum′s "slimy island of rock," the book covers: New insights into Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, Gollum, and Thorinand their exploits, from the Shire to the Lonely Mountain Key questions, including: was the Arkenstone really Bilbo′s togive? How should Smaug′s treasure have been distributed? Did Thorinleave his "beautiful golden harp" at Bag–End when he headed outinto the Wild? (If so, how much could we get for that oneBay?) The wisdom of some of the world′s deepest thinkers, fromConfucius, Plato, and Aristotle to Immanuel Kant, William Blake,and Thomas Nagel Pondering big hairy feet and riddles and rings, this is amust read for longtime Tolkien fans as well as those discoveringBilbo Baggins and his adventures "there and back again" for thefirst time.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Thag You Very Buch x

Introduction: Never Laugh at Live Philosophers 1
Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson

PART ONE DISCOVER YOUR INNER TOOK

1 The Adventurous Hobbit 7
Gregory Bassham

2 The Road Goes Ever On and On : A Hobbit sTao 20
Michael C. Brannigan

3 Big Hairy Feet: A Hobbit s Guide to Enlightenment32
Eric Bronson

4 Bilbo Baggins: The Cosmopolitan Hobbit 45
Dennis Knepp

PART TWO THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE SLIMY

5 The Glory of Bilbo Baggins 61
Charles Taliaferro and Craig Lindahl–Urben

6 Pride and Humility in The Hobbit 74
Laura Garcia

7 My Precious : Tolkien on the Perils ofPossessiveness 90
Anna Minore and Gregory Bassham

8 Tolkien s Just War 103
David Kyle Johnson

9 Pretty Fair Nonsense : Art and Beauty in TheHobbit 118
Philip Tallon

10 Hobbitus Ludens: Why Hobbits Like to Play and Why We Should,Too 129
David L. O Hara

PART THREE RIDDLES AND RINGS

11 The Lord of Magic and Machines : Tolkien onMagic and Technology 147
W. Christopher Stewart

12 Inside The Hobbit: Bilbo Baggins and the Paradox of Fiction161
Amy Kind

13 Philosophy in the Dark: The Hobbit and Hermeneutics 176
Tom Grimwood

PART FOUR BEING THERE AND BACK AGAIN

14 Some Hobbits Have All the Luck 193
Randall M. Jensen

15 The Consolation of Bilbo: Providence and Free Will inMiddle–Earth 206
Grant Sterling

16 Out of the Frying Pan: Courage and Decision Making inWilderland 218
Jamie Carlin Watson

17 There and Back Again: A Song of Innocence and Experience235
Joe Kraus

CONTRIBUTORS: Our Most Excellent and Audacious Contributors251

INDEX: The Moon Letters 257

  Gregory Bassham is Chair of the Philosophy Department atKing′s College and a professor of philosophy.  He edited The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy and co–edited The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy (Open Court) and The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy . Eric Bronson is a visiting professor in the HumanitiesDepartment at York University in Toronto, Canada. He is the editorof Poker and Philosophy (2012), and co–editor of The Lordof the Rings and Philosophy (2003) and Baseball andPhilosophy (2011). William Irwin is Professor of Philosophy at King′sCollege. He originated the philosophy and popular culture genre ofbooks as coeditor of the bestselling The Simpsons andPhilosophy and has overseen recent titles including Houseand Philosophy, Batman and Philosophy, and Alice inWonderland and Philosophy.

The value in this approach, of course, is that these essays are simple; they are incredibly short (each runs about five pages), and they are clear and accessible.   (Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 1 February 2015)

Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson s anthology of essays, ′The Hobbit and Philosophy′, may have an overblown title, but the authors do a good job of focusing on themes like possessiveness, providence and free will, courage and decision–making.   (The Times Literary Supplement,  21 December 2012)