Dexter and Philosophy: Mind over Spatter

Description

What explains the huge popular following for Dexter, a show which sympathetically depicts a serial killer driven by a cruel compulsion to brutally slay one victim after another? Although Dexter Morgan kills only killers, he is not a vigilante animated by a sense of justice but a charming psychopath animated by a lust to kill, ritualistically and bloodily. In Dexter and Philosophy, an elite team of philosophers don their rubber gloves and put Dexter's deeds under the microscope. Since Dexter is driven to ritual murder by his 'Dark Passenger', can he be blamed for killing, especially as he only murders other murderers? Does Dexter fit the profile of the familiar fictional type of the superhero? What part does luck play in making Dexter who he is? How and why are horror and disgust turned into aesthetic pleasure for the TV viewer?

Richard Greene is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. He is co-editor of Zombies, Vampires, and Philosophy, The Sopranos and Philosophy, Quentin Tarantino and Philosophy, and The Golden Compass and Philosophy. George Reisch is the author of How the Cold War Transformed the Philosophy of Science and editor of Pink Floyd and Philosophy and co-editor of Monty Python and Philosophy, Radiohead and Philosophy, and Bullshit and Philosophy. Rachel Robison is completing her Ph.D in philosophy at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is co-editor of The Golden Compass and Philosophy.