Better Call Saul and Philosophy: I Think Therefore I Scamis a collection of twenty-three essays exploring the philosophical themes in the hit television show Better Call Saul, a prequel to the TV show Breaking Bad. The sixth and final season of Better Call Saul, with thirteen episodes, began airing in April 2022.
The central character is Jimmy McGill, whom we know from Breaking Bad as Saul Goodman. In Better Call Saul he first takes the name of Saul Goodman from the phrase "S'all Good, Man!" Jimmy/Saul is a natural con artist who not only scams from self-interest but also because he enjoys it. He has a strange relationship with his brother, the distinguished lawyer Charles McGill, who resents Jimmy's delinquency and advantage in parental affection. Jimmy/Saul becomes a lawyer for a drug cartel, and most of the people he meets are criminals and other kinds of villains.
Like Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul raises a wide range of philosophical issues including the nature of good and evil, personal identity, free will and determinism, the law as it relates to morality, the ethical implications of the war on drugs, death and dying, and many more. Better Call Saul and Philosophy offers thoughtful fans of the show deeper and more provocative insights into the story and the characters.
Topics covered include: the morality of keeping promises to wrongdoers, the nature of psychosomatic illness, difficult moral choices facing lawyers, just how good or bad are some of the compromised characters in the show, the unintended consequences of the War on Drugs, the similarities between drug cartels and governments, whether bad people are just unlucky, the perils of self-deception, and whether we ever really have much of a choice.
Better Call Saul and Philosophy is Volume 8 in the path-breaking series, Pop Culture and Philosophy.
Table of Contents:
Contents
It’s Showtime, Folks! 000
I Slippin’ Jimmy with a law degree is like a chimp with a machine gun 000
1. Scamming for Fun
Patrick Clipsham 000
2. Don’t Go to Lawyers for Moral Guidance
Shane J. Ralston 000
3. Can It Be Right to Defend the Guilty?
Daniel Cook 000
4. Better Call the DEA?
Amy E. White 000
II You can be on one side of the law or the other 000
5. The Sovereign State of Salamanca
Walter Barta and Thomas Paul Barnes, Esq. 000
6. The Morality of Mike’s Manifesto
Jakob R. Gibson and Tobias T. Gibson 000
7. Saul Goodman Stands before the Law
E.F. Haven 000
III Put on your big boy pants and face reality 000
8. Self-Hatred as Identity
Conall Cash 000
9. The Prequel versus Free Will
Landon Frim 000
10. Slippin’ Identity
Kristina Šekrst 000
11. The Self-Deception Road
Darci Doll 000
IV Confidence is good—facts on your side, better 000
12. A Cave of His Own Making
Timothy J. Golden 000
13. Chuckrates v. The Saulphists
Walter Barta and Thomas Paul Barnes, Esq. 000
14. Salvaging Sunk Costs
Joshua Heter 000
15. Saul’s Bullshit’s Not All Good, Man
Joshua Luczak 000
16. Better Call Saul Because Chuck’s Condition Is Real
Amber E. George 000
V See, that’s your problem—thinking the ends justify the means 000
17. Is Morality for Suckers?
Abe Witonsky 000
18. Dissenting Opinions
Callie K. Phillips 000
19. Can We Blame Jimmy for Being Jimmy?
Daniel Carr 000
20. Why Is Breaking Skateboarder’s Legs Wrong?
J. Spencer Atkins 000
VI Never make the same mistake twice 000
21. Finding the Good in Nacho
James Rocha 000
22. Breaking Bad Promises
F.E. Guerra-Pujol 000
23. Why Does Jimmy Get to Determine Chuck’s Healthcare?
James Clark Ross 000
Bibliography 000
The Hostile Witnesses 000
Index 000
