Table of Contents
FOREWORD by
Elio M. Garcia and Linda Antonsson ix
A RAVE N FROM HOUSE WI LEY: Editor’s Note on Spoilers xiii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: How I Was Spared from Having to Take the Black xv
Introduction: So What if Winter Is Coming? 1Henry Jacoby
PART ONE “YOU WIN OR YOU DIE”
1 Maester Hobbes Goes to King’s Landing 5Greg Littmann
2 It Is a Great Crime to Lie to a King 19Don Fallis
3 Playing the Game of Thrones: Some Lessons from Machiavelli 33Marcus Schulzke
4 The War in Westeros and Just War Theory 49Richard H. Corrigan
PART TWO “THE THINGS I DO FOR LOVE”
5 Winter Is Coming!: The Bleak Quest for Happiness in Westeros 63Eric J. Silverman
6 The Death of Lord Stark: The Perils of Idealism 75David Hahn
7 Lord Eddard Stark, Queen Cersei Lannister: Moral Judgments from Different Perspectives 87Albert J. J. Anglberger and Alexander Hieke
8 It Would Be a Mercy: Choosing Life or Death in Westeros and Beyond the Narrow Sea 99Matthew Tedesco
PART THREE “WINTER IS COMING”
9 Wargs, Wights, and Wolves That Are Dire: Mind and Metaphysics, Westeros Style 115Henry Jacoby
10 Magic, Science, and Metaphysics in A Game of Thrones 129Edward Cox
11 “You Know Nothing, Jon Snow”: Epistemic Humility Beyond the Wall 142Abraham P. Schwab
12 “Why Is the World So Full of Injustice?”: Gods and the Problem of Evil 154Jaron Daniël Schoone
PART FOUR “THE MAN WHO PASSES THE SENTENCE SHOULD SWING THE SWORD”
13 Why Should Joffrey Be Moral If He Has Already Won the Game of Thrones? 169Daniel Haas
14 The Moral Luck of Tyrion Lannister 183Christopher Robichaud
15 Dany’s Encounter with the Wild: Cultural Relativism in A Game of Thrones 194Katherine Tullman
16 “There Are No True Knights”: The Injustice of Chivalry 205Stacey Goguen
PART FIVE “STICK THEM WITH THE POINTY END”
17 Fate, Freedom, and Authenticity in A Game of Thrones 223Michael J. Sigrist
18 No One Dances the Water Dance 236Henry Jacoby
19 The Things I Do For Love: Sex, Lies, and Game Theory 250R. Shannon Duval
20 Stop the Madness!: Knowledge, Power, and Insanity in A Song of Ice and Fire 264Chad William Timm
CONTRIBUTORS: The Learned Lords and Ladies from beyond the Seven Kingdoms 279
INDEX: From the Archives at Oldtown 287