The Philosophy of Joss Whedon

Every generation produces a counterculture icon. Joss Whedon, creator of the long-running television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is famed for his subversive wit, rich characters, and extraordinary plotlines. His renown has only grown with subsequent creations, including Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, and the innovative online series Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Through premises as unusual as a supernatural detective agency run by a vampire and a Western set in outer space, Whedon weaves stories about characters forced to make commonplace moral decisions under the most bizarre of circumstances. The Philosophy of Joss Whedon examines Whedon's plots and characterizations to reveal their philosophical takes on the limits of personal freedom, sexual morality, radical evil, and Daoism.

Firefly and Freedom
Just Get Us a Little Further': Liberty and the Frontier in Firefly and Serenity
The State of Nature and Social Contracts on Spaceship Serenity
Dollhouse and Consensual Slavery
Plato, Aristotle, and Joss on Being Horrible
Aristotle, Kant, Spike, and Jayne: Ethics and Character in the Whedonverse
Companions, Dolls, and Whores: Joss Whedon on Sex and Prostitution
Fashioning Feminism: Whedon, Women, and Wardrobe
Heroes and Villains: Morality, The Will to Power, and the Overman in the Work of Joss Whedon
Seeking Authenticity in the Whedonverse
'Look What Free Will Has Gotten You': Isolation, Individuality, and Choice in the Whedonverse
Aiming to Misbehave at the Boundary between the Human and the Machine: The Queer Steampunk Ecology of Joss Whedon's Firefly and Serenity
Shepherd Book, Malcolm Reynolds, and the Dao of the Firefly