Ender’s Game and Philosophy

A threat to humanity portending the end of our species lurks in the cold recesses of space. Our only hope is an eleven-year-old boy. Celebrating the long-awaited release of the movie adaptation of Orson Scott Card s novel about highly trained child geniuses fighting a race of invading aliens, this collection of original essays probes key philosophical questions raised in the narrative, including the ethics of child soldiers, politics on the internet, and the morality of war and genocide. Original essays dissect the diverse philosophical questions raised in Card s best-selling sci-fi classic, winner of the Nebula and Hugo Awards and which has been translated in 29 languages Publication coincides with planned release of major motion picture adaptation of Ender s Game starring Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford Treats a wealth of core contemporary issues in morality and ethics, including child soldiers, the best kind of education and the use and misuse of global communications for political purposes A stand-out addition to the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series

A threat to humanity portending the end of our species lurks in thecold recesses of space. Our only hope is an eleven-year-old boy.Celebrating the long-awaited release of the movie adaptation ofOrson Scott Card's novel about highly trained child geniusesfighting a race of invading aliens, this collection of originalessays probes key philosophical questions raised in the narrativeincluding the ethics of child soldiers, politics on the internetand the morality of war and genocide.* Original essays dissect the diverse philosophical questionsraised in Card's best-selling sci-fi classic, winner of theNebula and Hugo Awards and which has been translated in 29languages* Publication coincides with planned release of major motionpicture adaptation of Ender's Game starring AsaButterfield and Harrison Ford* Treats a wealth of core contemporary issues in morality andethics, including child soldiers, the best kind of education andthe use and misuse of global communications for politicalpurposes* A stand-out addition to the Blackwell Philosophy and PopCulture series

Introduction: What Is Ender's Game? 1Part One THIRD: The Making of an Impossible Child 71 "The Teachers Got Me Into This": EducationalSkirmishes ... with a Pinch of Freedom 9Cam Cobb2 Illusions of Freedom, Tragedies of Fate: The Moral Developmentof Ender Wiggin 21Jeremy Proulx3 Xenocide's Paradox: The Virtue of Being Ender 32Jeff Ewing4 Teaching to the Test: Constructing the Identity of a SpaceCommander 41Chad William TimmPart Two GAME: Cooperation or Confrontation? 535 The Enemy's Gate Is Down: Perspective, Empathy, and GameTheory 55Andrew Zimmerman Jones6 War Games as Child's Play 66Matthew Brophy7 Forming the Formless: Sunzi and the Military Logic of EnderWiggin 78Morgan Deane8 Do Good Games Make Good People? 89Brendan P. SheaPart Three HIVE-QUEEN: All Together Now 999 Bugger All!: The Clash of Cultures in Ender's Game101Cole Bowman10 Why Ender Can't Go Home: Philotic Connections and MoralResponsibility 112Brett Chandler Patterson11 Of Gods and Buggers: Friendship in Ender's Game124Jeffery L. NicholasPart Four WAR: Kill or Be Killed 13712 "I Destroy Them": Ender, Good Intentions, andMoral Responsibility 139Lance Belluomini13 Ender's Beginning and the Just War 151James L. Cook14 "You Had to Be a Weapon, Ender ... We AimedYou": Moral Responsibility in Ender's Game 163Danielle Wylie15 The Unspoken Rules of Manly Warfare: Just War Theory inEnder's Game 175Kody W. CooperPart Five HEGEMON: The Terrible Things Are Only About toBegin 18716 Locke and Demosthenes: Virtually Dominating the World189Kenneth Wayne Sayles III17 Ender's Dilemma: Realism, Neoliberalism, and thePolitics of Power 202Ted Henry Brown and Christie L. Maloyed18 People Are Tools 212Greg LittmannConvening Authorities of the Court Martial of Colonel HyrumGraff 224The Ansible Index 230