Fallout and Philosophy

Thinking Outside the Shelter
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-394-33421-6
Verlag: John Wiley & Sons Inc

Buch, Englisch, 256 Seiten

Reihe: The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series

Explore the deep philosophical questions lurking in the Fallout wasteland

The Fallout franchise welcomes you to the Wasteland through both the post-nuclear role-playing games and the Amazon streaming series. Set against a retro-futuristic world of mutants, warlords, and weird science, the decent and wicked alike eke out survival despite the irradiated dangers surrounding them. But beneath the irreverent humor and constant violence, Fallout forces its players and characters into circumstances with weighty philosophical implications, and it compels fans of all stripes to consider complex, sometimes harrowing moral dilemmas.

Fallout and Philosophy tackles these issues head-on. In the 26 essays included in this volume, philosophers follow the implications of Fallout’s dystopian world and the challenging questions it raises to their logical conclusions. Even if war never changes, could wars be waged justly? Is freedom possible in the closed and controlled world of the Vaults? Are “kill everything” playthroughs harmless fun, or are they ethically suspect? - Are the Institute’s synths mere machines, or are they people? How can we tell?
- Is the Brotherhood justified in hoarding pre-War technology?
- Is Lucy’s Golden Rule too idealistic for the world outside her Vault?
- Is it defensible to bring children into a postapocalyptic wasteland?
- “Everyone disliked that” ending of Fallout 3, but why?

If you’re a fan of the franchise and you want to think more deeply about - and more fully appreciate - all things Fallout, then it’s time to climb out of your Vault and strap on your power armor. Let Fallout and Philosophy be your Wasteland Survival Guide.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kellen, Nathan

Sheff, Nathan

Heter, Joshua

Weitere Mitwirkende

Irwin, William

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Philosophie: Allgemeines, Methoden
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

The Vault Dwellers viii
Flesh Is Weak, but Questions Endure xiv

Part 1 Living and Dying in the Wasteland 1

1 Death in the Wasteland: What Do the Living Owe to the Dead? 3
Mackenzie Graham

2 Should Lucy and Maximus Have Children? The Ethics of Reproducing in the Apocalypse 11
Eric J. Silverman

3 All Too Human: Moral Status in the Wasteland 20
David R. Lawrence

4 Fallout and the Ethics of Killing Everything 28
Trevor Grant Hedberg

Part 2 Synths, Cyborgs, and the Self 35

5 My Pip-Boy, My Self: The Extended Mind and Its Fallout 37
Michael Funke and Quinn Funke

6 Transhumanism or Bust! 45
Walter Barta

7 Synthetic Souls? Pragmatist Functionalism and the Moral Status of Synths in Fallout 54
Albert R. Spencer

8 Robots, Cyborgs, and Synths: Exploring Personhood in the Fallout Universe 64
Matthew Watts

Part 3 Overseer, Overseen: Fallout and Political Philosophy 73

9 Locked In: The Fallout of Liberal Ideals in Vault 33 75
John P. Irish

10 War Never Changes: Just War Theory in the Fallout Universe 84
Alba Curry and Gerald Lang

11 The Brotherhood of Steel: The Politics of Monopolizing Knowledge and Technology 94
Sergio Urueña

12 Lucy in the Wasteland with Ghouls: The Search for Truth in a Platonic World 103
Federico Dal Barco

13 No Mungos! Children and Politics in Little Lamplight 109
Andrea Conque

Part 4 Morality at the End of the World 117

14 Should Chems Be Banned? 119
Ian McDaniel

15 The Ghoul and the Golden Rule: A Rare Taste of Ethical Riches from the Vault 128
Benjamin B. DeVan

16 You Gotta Stand for Something: Ethical Reasoning in Fallout 4 137
Armond Boudreaux

17 Sanitizing the Apocalypse: Moral Extremes in Fallout's Simulated Wasteland 147
Kenneth R. Pike

18 Vault-Tec and the Moral Fallout of Human Experimentation 156
Bobbie L. Eicher

Part 5 A Beautiful Disaster: The Aesthetics of Fallout 165

19 Genre Fusion and Its Fallout 167
Nathan Sheff

20 Putting Broken Glass Back Together: Freedom Through Modding in Bethesda-era Fallout 175
Chris Lay

21 Some Video Games Are S.P.E.C.I.A.L. 183
Katia S. Franco

22 Aesthetics in the Age of the Atom 191
S. Evan Kreider

23 Player Narrative and Dying Well: Re-examining the Ending of Fallout 3 198
Daniel Guy Baldwin

Part 6 Apocalyptic Psychology 207

24 Loss, Care, and Morality in Fallout: An Ethics of Care Approach 209
Karen "Kat" Schrier

25 Obsessed with "The End" and What Comes After 218
Eric D. Wesselmann and J. Scott Jordan

26 The Wasteland Is Hell. So, Why Go There? 227
Greg Littmann

Index 235

Über Autor(innen)

NATHAN KELLEN received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Connecticut in 2019 and is currently a teaching assistant professor in philosophy at Kansas State University. He is a co-editor of The Nature of Truth: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives (2021) and has contributed to several popular culture and philosophy books including Joker and Philosophy (2024), Star Wars and Philosophy Strikes Back (2023), and The Last Airbender and Philosophy (2022).

NATHAN SHEFF earned his PhD in philosophy in 2017 from the University of Connecticut. When he’s not teaching philosophy, he’s observing the birds and pollinators that visit his yard. Fallout and Philosophy is his first co-edited book.

JOSHUA HETER earned his PhD in philosophy from Saint Louis University in 2013, and he’s a professor of philosophy at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, MO. He’s published several popular culture and philosophy books, including Back to the Future and Philosophy (2025), The Godfather and Philosophy (2023), and Punk Rock and Philosophy (2022).