Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy: Curiouser and Curiouser

Should the Cheshire Cat′s grin make us reconsider the nature ofreality?

Can Humpty Dumpty make words mean whatever he says theymean?

Can drugs take us down the rabbit–hole?

Is Alice a feminist icon?

Alice′s Adventures in Wonderland has fascinated childrenand adults alike for generations. Why does Lewis Carroll introduceus to such oddities as a blue caterpillar who smokes a hookah, acat whose grin remains after its head has faded away, and a WhiteQueen who lives backward and remembers forward? Is it all justnonsense? Was Carroll under the influence? This book probes thedeeper underlying meaning in the Alice books and reveals a worldrich with philosophical life lessons. Tapping into some of thegreatest philosophical minds that ever lived Aristotle, Hume,Hobbes, and Nietzsche Alice in Wonderland and Philosophyexplores life′s ultimate questions through the eyes of perhaps themost endearing heroine in all of literature.

To learn more about the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Cultureseries, visit www.andphilosophy.com

Introduction: You re Late for a Very Important Date.

PART ONE WAKE UP, ALICE DEAR .

1 Unruly Alice: A Feminist View of Some Adventures in Wonderland(Megan S. Lloyd).

2 Jam Yesterday, Jam Tomorrow, but Never Jam Today: OnProcrastination, Hiking, and . . . the Spice Girls? (Mark D.White).

3 Nuclear Strategists in Wonderland (Ron Hirschbein).

4 You re Nothing but a Pack of Cards! : AliceDoesn t Have a Social Contract (Dennis Knepp).

PART TWO THAT S LOGIC .

5 Six Impossible Things before Breakfast (George A. Dunn and Brian McDonald).

6 Reasoning Down the Rabbit–Hole: Logical Lessons in Wonderland(David S. Brown).

7 Three Ways of Getting It Wrong: Induction in Wonderland(Brendan Shea).

8 Is There Such a Thing as a Language? (DanielWhiting).

PART THREE WE RE ALL MAD HERE .

9 Alice, Perception, and Reality: Jell–O Mistaken for Stones(Robert Arp).

10 How Deep Does the Rabbit–Hole Go?: Drugs and Dreams,Perception and Reality (Scott F. Parker).

11 Perspectivism and Tragedy: A Nietzschean Interpretation ofAlice s Adventure (Rick Mayock).

12 Wishing It Were Some Other Time: The Temporal Passage ofAlice (Mark W. Westmoreland).

PART FOUR WHO IN THE WORLD AM I? .

13 Serious Nonsense (Charles Taliaferro and ElizabethOlson).

14 Memory and Muchness : Alice and the Philosophyof Memory (Tyler Shores).

CONTRIBUTORS: Pawns and Pieces: As Arranged beforeCommencement of Game.

INDEX: Down, Down, Down : What You Will Findat the Bottom.

WILLIAM IRWIN is a professor of philosophy at King′sCollege in Wilkes–Barre, Pennsylvania. He originated the philosophyand popular culture genre of books as coeditor of the bestsellingThe Simpsons and Philosophy and has overseen recent titles,including Batman and Philosophy, House andPhilosophy, and Watchmen and Philosophy.