Table of Contents

Contributors: Hosts and Guests viii

Acknowledgments: “Figuring Out How It All Works” xv

Introduction: Taking Sides in Westworld 1

Part I “You Said This Place Was a Game” 3

1 On Playing Cowboys and Indians 5
Don Fallis

2 A Special Kind of Game: The Portrayal of Role‐play in Westworld 15
Nicholas Moll

3 Humans and Hosts in Westworld: What’s the Difference? 26
Marcus Arvan

Part II “You’re Only Human, After All” 39

4 Crossing the Uncanny Valley: What it Means to be Human in Westworld 41
Siobhan Lyons

5 Revealing Your Deepest Self: Can Westworld Create or Corrupt Virtue? 50
Jason T. Eberl

6 Westworld: From Androids to Persons 61
Onni Hirvonen

Part III “We Can’t Define Consciousness Because Consciousness Does Not Exist” 71

7 Turing’s Dream and Searle’s Nightmare in Westworld 73
Lucía Carrillo González

8 What Is It Like to Be a Host? 79
Bradley Richards

9 Does the Piano Play Itself? Consciousness and the Eliminativism of Robert Ford 90
Michael Versteeg and Adam Barkman

Part IV “Choices Hanging in the Air Like Ghosts” 103

10 Maeve’s Dilemma: What Does it Mean to Be Free? 105
Marco Antonio Azevedo and Ana Azevedo

11 A Place to Be Free: Writing Your Own Story in Westworld 114
Joshua D. Crabill

12 From William to the Man in Black: Sartrean Existentialism and the Power of Freedom 125
Kimberly S. Engels

Part V “I’ve Always Loved a Great Story…Lies That Told a Deeper Truth” 137

13 Hideous Fictions and Horrific Fates 139
Madeline Muntersbjorn

14 Narrating Gender, Gendering Narrative, and Engendering Wittgenstein’s “Rough Ground” in Westworld 150
Lizzie Finnegan

15 The Observer(s) System and the Semiotics of Virtuality in Westworld’s Characters: Jonathan Nolan’s Fictions as a Conceptual Unity 162
Patricia Trapero‐Llobera

16 What Does Bernard Dream About When He Dreams About His Son? 173
Oliver Lean

Part VI “I Choose to See the Beauty” 183

17 The Dueling Productions of Westworld: Self‐Referential Art or Meta‐Kitsch? 185
Michael Forest and Thomas Beckley‐Forest

18 Beauty, Dominance, Humanity: Three Takes on Nudity in Westworld 196
Matthew Meyer

19 Sci‐Fi Western or Ancient Greek Tragedy? 206
Caterina Ludovica Baldini

Part VII “You Can’t Play God Without Being Acquainted With the Devil” 217

20 Of Hosts and Men: Westworld and Speciesism 219
François Jaquet and Florian Cova

21 Violent Births: Fanon, Westworld, and Humanity 229
Anthony Petros Spanakos

22 The Wretched of Westworld: Scientific Totalitarianism and Revolutionary Violence 239
Dan Dinello

Index 252 

About the Author

JAMES B. SOUTH is Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean for Faculty in the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences at Marquette University.

KIMBERLY S. ENGELS is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Molloy College in Rockville Centre, New York where she teaches courses in ethics, biomedical ethics, and contemporary philosophy.