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Sideways into Truth: Kierkegaard, Philistines, and Why We Love Sex and Violence

Sideways into Truth: Kierkegaard, Philistines, and Why We Love Sex and Violence

Erin Hoffman
Copyright: © 2010 |Pages: 16
ISBN13: 9781615208456|ISBN10: 1615208453|ISBN13 Softcover: 9781616922504|EISBN13: 9781615208463
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61520-845-6.ch008
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MLA

Hoffman, Erin. "Sideways into Truth: Kierkegaard, Philistines, and Why We Love Sex and Violence." Ethics and Game Design: Teaching Values through Play, edited by Karen Schrier and David Gibson, IGI Global, 2010, pp. 109-124. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61520-845-6.ch008

APA

Hoffman, E. (2010). Sideways into Truth: Kierkegaard, Philistines, and Why We Love Sex and Violence. In K. Schrier & D. Gibson (Eds.), Ethics and Game Design: Teaching Values through Play (pp. 109-124). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61520-845-6.ch008

Chicago

Hoffman, Erin. "Sideways into Truth: Kierkegaard, Philistines, and Why We Love Sex and Violence." In Ethics and Game Design: Teaching Values through Play, edited by Karen Schrier and David Gibson, 109-124. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2010. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61520-845-6.ch008

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Abstract

We often discuss the interactive medium as being possibly the ultimate in “meta” studies, touching virtually every discipline, and yet we rarely discuss it in serious terms of that other most comprehensive of humanities: philosophy. Correspondingly, philosophy and the traditional humanities have historically distanced themselves from games, relegating them to some curious and inconsequential sub-study of cultural anthropology if they are studied at all. Yet it is the very human foundational compulsion to contemplate death—as will be shown through the works of philosophers Søren Kierkegaard and Ernest Becker—that drives much of the violent content that makes the video game medium a lightning rod for cultural scrutiny and controversy. The chapter explores two video games—the controversial Super Columbine Massacre RPG!—through the lens of existential death-anxiety to show how video games represent contemplation of fundamental ethical concerns in the human experience.

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