Can you tell us a little about your background and how you ended up involved with the Popular Culture and Philosophy books?
ROBERT ARP: I first got involved in 2003 when two of my graduate student colleagues
at Saint Louis University, Jason Eberl and Kevin Decker, got a contract with
Open Court Publishers to do Star Wars and
Philosophy in their Popular Culture and Philosophy series; the one that was
started with Seinfeld and Philosophy
and then the wildly successful The
Simpsons and Philosophy. I have a
chapter in the Star Wars book about
droids and what constitutes personhood.
Bill Irwin was series editor at that point. He moved to Wiley-Blackwell and started The Blackwell
Philosophy and Pop Culture series, and my South
Park and Philosophy: You Know, I Learned Something Today was the first book
in that series. I have more than 30
chapters in these kinds of books, and I’ve edited another half dozen or
so. Hard to believe it’s been 10 years!