Serial Killers - Philosophy for Everyone: Being and Killing - Paperback

by Fritz Allhoff (Editor), S. Waller (Editor), John M. Doris (Foreword by)

Serial Killers - Philosophy for Everyone investigates our profound intrigue with mass-murderers. Exploring existential, ethical and political questions through an examination of real and fictional serial killers, philosophy comes alive via an exploration of grisly death.

• Presents new philosophical theories about serial killing, and relates new research in cognitive science to the minds of serial killers
• Includes a philosophical look at real serial killers such as Ian Brady, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer and the Zodiac killer, as well as fictional serial killers such as Dexter and Hannibal Lecter
• Offers a new phenomenological examination of the writings of the Zodiac Killer
• Contains an account of the disappearance of one of Ted Bundy's victims submitted by the organization Families and Friends of Missing Persons and Violent Crime Victims
• Integrates the insights of philosophers, academics, crime writers and police officers

Back Jacket

They terrify us, and yet we love to read about them, to watch films about them, and some even fantasize about meeting them; this is the horror-pleasure reaction to serial killers whose gruesome acts hold a deep and disturbing lure.

Serial Killers - Philosophy for Everyone offers a philosophical examination of real and fictional serial killers, and investigates our profound intrigue with serial murderers. Authors from various academic fields, as well as true crime writers and police officers, delve into such questions as:

• What drives people to kill repeatedly?
• Can a serial killer be good and moral?
• What is it about serial killers that fascinates us?
• Do serial killers such as Ian Brady, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and the Zodiac Killer, or fictional characters such as Dexter or Hannibal Lecter, make us understand ourselves differently?

Investigating existential, ethical, and political questions via real murder cases, this is a philosophical examination of our enduring fascination with these grisly figures.

Author Biography

Editor
S. Waller is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Montana State University Bozeman. Her areas of research are philosophy of neurology, philosophy of cognitive ethology (especially dolphins, wolves, and coyotes), and philosophy of mind, specifically the parts of the mind we disavow.

Series Editor
Fritz Allhoff is an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Western Michigan University, as well as a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian National University's Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. In addition to editing the Philosophy for Everyone series, Allhoff is the volume editor or co-editor for several titles, including Wine & Philosophy (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), Whiskey & Philosophy (with Marcus P. Adams, Wiley, 2009), and Food & Philosophy (with Dave Monroe, Wiley-Blackwell, 2007).