Philosophy and Breaking Bad

Kevin S. Decker • David R. Koepsell • Robert Arp

Editors

Philosophy and
Breaking Bad
Editors

Kevin S. Decker Robert Arp

Eastern Washington University Independent Scholar
Cheney, USA Overland Park, Kansas, USA

David R. Koepsell
Comision Nacional
de Bioetica, Mexico

ISBN 978-3-319-40342-7 (Hardcover) ISBN 978-3-319-40343-4 (eBook)

ISBN 978-3-319-40665-7 (Softcover)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40343-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016959579

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For Suzanne, Vanessa, and Susan
 TO W.W.
MY STAR, MY PERFECT SILENCE

vii
 CONTENTS

Part 1 “We Tried to Poison You”: Breaking Evil 1

1 What’s Stopping Me: Breaking Bad and Virtue Ethics 3

Jen Baker

2 Eichmann in Albuquerque 17
Karen Adkins

3 Empathy and Evil: Drug-Dealing Murderers

Are People Too 35
Charlene Elsby and Rob Luzecky

Part 2 “I Am the One Who Knocks”: The Shadow of

Death and the Meaning of Life 45

4 In the Shadow of the Sickness Unto Death: Walter White’s

Transformation into the Knight of Meth 47
Frank Scalambrino

5 Death Is Easy If You’re Dead 63

Christopher Ketcham

6 Cosmic Justice in Breaking Bad: Can Sociopaths and 

Antiheroes Lead Meaningful Lives? 77
Kimberly Blessing

ix
x CONTENTS

7 Law and Morality in Breaking Bad: The Aesthetics of Justice 93

David Koepsell

Part 3 “I Will Put You Under the Jail”: The Tragedy

of Breaking Bad 107

8 The Crumbling Patriarchy and Triumphant Feminist

Ethic of Care in Breaking Bad 109
Leigh Kolb

9 What Bad Is Not: Breaking Bad, Apophatic and 

Dramaturgic Continua from Creator to Viewer,
and a Poetics of the Philosophy of Religion 123
Jesse Abbot

Part 4 “I Did It for Me”: Morality, Mastery and Meth 141

10 Recovering Lost Moral Ground: Can Walt

Make Amends? 143
James Edwin Mahon and Joseph Mahon

11 (Im)Morality in Action 161

Travis Dyk and Adam Barkman

12 The Transformation of Walter White: A Case Study in 

Bad Faith 175
Leslie A. Aarons

13 Breaking Bonds: White Lines of Love and Hate 191

Sara Waller

Part 5 Becoming Jesse James: Breaking Bad’s

Challenge to Philosophy 199

14 Hatred: Walter White Is Doing It All Wrong 201

Kevin Guilfoy
 CONTENTS xi

15 “We Are Responsible to All for All”: An Intersubjective

Analysis of Breaking Bad 217
Sheridan Hough

16 Theater of the Absurd: Breaking Bad as Edifying

Philosophy 233
Kevin S. Decker

Bibliography 249

Index 261
 CONTRIBUTORS

Leslie A. Aarons, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Philosophy at City University

of New York LaGuardia Community College. She specializes in public philoso-
phy, popular culture, and environmental ethics. Her more recent publications
include “Underwood as Übermensch: A Postmodern Play of Power” in House
of Cards and Philosophy: Underwood’s Republic and “When a Charming Woman
Speaks” in Sons of Anarchy and Philosophy: Brains before Bullets. She conducts
specialized classes in environmental ethics and is currently writing a book on
the subject.
J.I. Abbot, Ph.D. is Professor of English and Philosophy at Tunxis Community
College in Farmington, CT.  A poet, essayist, and translator with a focus on
comparative Indo–Tibetan philosophies and their nexus to the philosophy of
religion, philosophy of science, and poetics, Abbot completed an MFA in
Literary Arts at Brown University, and his undergraduate work in Languages
and Literature at Bard College. His collection of poems, An Argument of
Dreams, will be published in 2017 by La Bohème, an imprint affiliated with the
literary and political journal Peripheral Surveys.
Karen Adkins, Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy at Regis University in Denver,
Colorado. She has published articles in Social Epistemology, Philosophy in the
Modern World, and Synergies. Her book, Knowledge Underground: Gossip,
Hypocrisy, Power, is forthcoming from Palgrave MacMillan.
Robert Arp, Ph.D. is a research analyst working on models and simulations for
the US Army at Ft. Leavenworth. He has interests in philosophy and popular
culture. His more recent publications include What’s Good on TV? Understanding
Ethics through Television, a second edition of Critical Thinking: An Introduction
to Reasoning Well, and 1001 Quotations to Enlighten, Entertain, and Inspire. See
robertarp.com.
Jennifer Baker, Ph.D. is Associate Professor at the College of Charleston in the
Department of Philosophy. She looks to what is relevant in ancient accounts of

xiii
xiv CONTRIBUTORS

virtue for use today. Her most recent work is the edited collection, Economics and
the Virtues, for Oxford University Press.
Adam Barkman, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the
Department of Philosophy at Redeemer University College (Canada). He is
the author of five books and the co-editor of another four, many of which have
to do with the intersection between popular culture and philosophical themes.
His most recent book is Making Sense of Islamic Art & Architecture.
Kimberly Blessing, Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy at SUNY Buffalo State.
Her interests include the meaning of life, philosophy of religion, existentialism,
and early modern philosophy. She has recently written philosophy and popular
philosophy on Downton Abbey and Girls.
Kevin  S.  Decker, Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy at Eastern Washington
University. He is the author of a number of published articles on American and
Continental philosophy, applied ethics, political philosophy, and has edited or
co-edited more than ten books in philosophy and popular culture. He is the
author of Who is Who? The Philosophy of Doctor Who (I.B. Tauris, 2013).
Travis Dyk is an independent scholar who is interested in law, philosophy, and
film.
Charlene Elsby, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at
Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne, specializing in Ancient phi-
losophy and realist phenomenology. She recently edited a volume, Essays on
Aesthetic Genesis (with Aaron Massecar), published by University Press of
America (2016). She is currently working on an analysis of how Aristotelian
concepts found their way into the foundations of early phenomenology.
Kevin Guilfoy, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Carroll University
in Wisconsin. His primary work is in medieval philosophy and social and politi-
cal philosophy. He is co-editor of the Cambridge Companion to Peter Abelard
and contributor to Mad Men and Philosophy, The Philosophy of Viagra, and
Terry Pratchett and Philosophy.
Sheridan Hough, Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy at the College of Charleston.
She has also taught in the Honors College at the University of Houston and
served as NEH Professor of the Humanities at Colgate University. Hough is the
author of Nietzsche’s Noontide Friend: the Self as Metaphoric Double and her most
recent books are Kierkegaard’s Dancing Tax Collector: Faith, Finitude, and
Silence and the novel Mirror’s Fathom, a work that explores the Kierkegaardian
self. Her first volume of poetry, The Hide, was published by Inleaf Press in 2007.
You can find more information about Sheridan at http://houghs.people.cofc.
edu.
Christopher Ketcham, Ph.D. teaches business and ethics for the University of
Houston downtown. His research interests are risk management, applied ethics,
social justice, and East–West comparative philosophy. With Dr. Jean Paul
 CONTRIBUTORS xv

Louisot, he has co-edited Enterprise Risk Management: Issues and Cases and
Enterprise Risk Management: Developing and Implementing. He has chapters in
Reconsidering the Meaning in Life and Commercial Space Exploration: Ethics,
Policy and Governance. He has recently published articles in Philosophical
Inquires, Per la filosofia, Leadership and the Humanities, and Journal of the
Philosophy of Life.
David Koepsell has a Ph.D. in Philosophy as well as a J.D. from the University
at Buffalo. He has authored numerous scholarly books and articles, practiced
law, and was Associate Professor of Philosophy at Delft University of Technology
before becoming the Director of Strategic Initiatives for the National
Commission of Bioethics (CONBIOETICA) in Mexico. He is also Advisor to
the Rector at Universidad Autonoma Metropolitan—Xochimilco. See davidko-
epsell.com.
Leigh Kolb is an instructor at a community college in rural Missouri, where she
teaches English, journalism, and mass media. She has written film and TV criti-
cism for Vulture and Bitch magazines. She wrote about the feminism of Breaking
Bad at Bitch Flicks, and her chapter, “Mothers of Anarchy: Power, Control, and
Care in the Feminine Sphere,” appeared in Sons of Anarchy and Philosophy: Brains
before Bullets.
Rob Luzecky is Lecturer in the Philosophy Department at Indiana University-
Purdue University, Fort Wayne. When he is not busy running a car wash and
trying to be the one who knocks, he specializes in the ontology of works of art,
with particular reference to the thought of Roman Ingarden.
Joseph Mahon, Ph.D. was Lecturer in Philosophy at the National University
of Ireland, Galway, until his retirement in 2013. His research and publications
have concentrated on topics in Marxism, existentialism, feminism, applied eth-
ics, and cultural policy. He is the author of An Introduction to Practical Ethics,
Existentialism, Feminism, and Simone de Beauvoir, and Simone de Beauvoir and
Her Catholicism.
James  Edwin  Mahon, Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of the Department of
Philosophy at CUNY-Lehman College. His primary research interests are in
moral philosophy, the history of moral philosophy, metaethics, and the inter-
section of law and applied ethics. Recent publications include “The Definition
of Lying and Deception” in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and
“Innocent Burdens” in Washington and Lee Law Review.
Frank Scalambrino, Ph.D. is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of
Akron, Ohio’s Polytechnic University, and Associate Editor for the Taylor &
Francis journal Social Epistemology. He has interests in social justice and philo-
sophical psychology. His more recent publications include Social Epistemology &
Technology, Meditations on Orpheus, and Introduction to Ethics: A Primer for the
Western Tradition.
xvi CONTRIBUTORS

Sara  Waller, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Montana State

University, where she teaches Other Animals and Philosophy and Popular
Culture. She has published articles on philosophy of mind and cognitive neu-
roscience in journals such as Synthese and Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, as
well as on Breaking Bad and House. Her research interests include human and
animal minds and measures of intelligence across species.
 INTRODUCTION: WALT’S HERO JOURNEY

When the final history of TV has been written, when it is an obsolete art form
replaced by god-knows-what 3-D-immersive, virtual-reality, 24-hour-per-day
live spectacle to which we all can look forward, the first decades of the twenty-
first century will be looked on as the culmination of the medium. The new
Golden Age of Television is now—we are living through it. Not only a prolif-
eration of channels, but also the reimagining of what it means to be a television
network when cable and Internet allow us nearly unlimited viewing options
have fueled its emergence. We think that many will likewise come to agree that
among the very best offerings of this new Golden Age was Breaking Bad.
Breaking Bad is captivating and unusual TV for a variety of reasons. It is a
long-form, self-contained, and limited serio-comic drama. It has a strong cast, but
it is not, strictly speaking, an ensemble piece—there is one central character who
emerges as a consistent, though changing, persona over the course of the show.
What is more challenging to the audience is that we are meant to identify with this
central character even as he becomes, essentially, a villain. And identify with him
many of us certainly do, since Breaking Bad is one of the most loved and highly
rated, critically acclaimed TV shows of all time. It is a success story many will likely
attempt to recreate, but which sets a bar that may not be fully reached again.
Walter White has attained an international mythos, and his alter ego
“Heisenberg” is a kind of heroic symbol, plastered on T-shirts like Superman
or Iron Man. Given Breaking Bad’s mythic status, the complexities of the
show’s interpretations are varied, offering endless possibilities for discussion
within any number of philosophical traditions. Vince Gilligan, the show’s cre-
ator, has given numerous interviews about Breaking Bad, each of which pro-
vides evidence that he was working through some significant ethical issues in
creating and writing it over five seasons. Because the central focus of the show
is the gradual descent of an ordinary man into a criminal mastermind, much
of the musing that exists about Breaking Bad focuses on ethics, but its moral
territory is both deep and broad, and allows for approaches from a variety of
ethical traditions. Numerous books and articles have already been published
deconstructing, analyzing, and using Breaking Bad as a platform for discussion

xvii
xviii INTRODUCTION: WALT’S HERO JOURNEY

of topics both obscure and popular, often from a philosophical point of view.
Among popular culture artifacts, the show is not unique in this regard, but is
especially useful and fruitful as a source of inspiration for philosophical inquiry
because of its clear, self-conscious philosophical standpoint. Breaking Bad will
provide us all with opportunities for fresh philosophical musings for some time
to come.
Perhaps what is most intriguing about Walter White’s moral arc is that we are
somehow compelled to sympathize with him, to root for him against his foes,
even when his foes are the “good guys” and it has become clear that he has fallen
completely into the depths of depravity. Vince Gilligan has perhaps perfected the
anti-hero’s journey, in stark contrast to the hero’s journey described by Joseph
Campbell in his 1949 work, The Hero With A Thousand Faces.1 The hero takes
the basic steps shown in Fig. 1, which include Call to Adventure, Supernatural
Aid, Threshold Guardian, Threshold, Helper Mentor, Temptation, Revelation,
Abyss, Death, Rebirth, Transformation, Atonement, and Return.
David Corbett includes Walter White in a list of modern anti-heroes and
briefly describes the anti-hero’s journey in Bright Ideas magazine, but Breaking
Bad differs from the anti-hero that Corbett traces back to ancient Greek epic to
Mad Men and The Sopranos. Corbett sums up Walt this way:

Call to
Adventure Supernatural
Return
Aid

Threshold
Atonement
Guardian

Transformation Threshold

Helper
Rebirth
Mentor

Death Temptation

Abyss Revelation

Fig. 1 The hero’s journey

 INTRODUCTION: WALT’S HERO JOURNEY xix

Like the tragic hero, the antihero stands before a vast, impersonal force—not
God or fate, but hypocrisy, or the end of an era. Unlike the tragic hero, he avails
himself the weapon of amorality, plumbing the darker aspects of his nature. This
provides an excellent means to dramatize the seemingly endless struggle between
the proud, resourceful individual and the corrupt society that would gladly crush
him. And though his turn toward the darkness may help him survive, it also taints
whatever victory he manages to secure.2

Walt’s final act is not “tainted” any more than Odysseus’s triumph is. Campbell’s
description of the hero’s journey is morally neutral. We can see this in vari-
ous well-delineated phases of Walt’s transformation in each of these stages.
For example, it is arguable that Tuco is a threshold guardian of sorts, and his
death in Walt’s inferno is the latter’s crossing of a threshold (other threshold
points may be argued, and this analysis could well have been another chapter).
And perhaps Gus is best seen as a helper mentor, and Walt’s realization of his
expendability and defeat of Gus is his transformation, while his defeat of the
white supremacists, scheme for delivering the money to his family, and confes-
sion of his true love for what he did as his motivation are all part of his return
home and atonement. Walt has, by the end of Breaking Bad in Season Five,
taken the hero’s journey in full.
Yet heroes in heroic epics do terrible things. Consider that, upon his return,
Odysseus murders dozens of Penelope’s suitors, whose attentions Penelope has
been fending off as she awaits his return. Or think of Luke Skywalker, a pretty
clear-cut hero and one modeled consciously by George Lucas on the hero of
Joseph Campbell’s works. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that the mil-
lion or so Imperial forces on the first Death Star were all clearly evil, and none
of them were mere functionaries with families and children, etc. (a pretty big
assumption). As Kevin Smith’s characters in the film Clerks argued, many of
the deaths in the second Death Star’s explosion (in Return of the Jedi) were
murders, plain and simple. Contractors who were still hard at work building
the destructive weapon were incinerated with Luke’s help in its destruction,
though the final shot is Lando Calrissian’s. In any case, it is surely arguable
that our hero, Luke Skywalker, is instrumental in the murders of thousands of
innocent workers, maybe more.
What is it in Walt’s journey that “taints” his final victory? In fact, he has
attempted to avoid killing those he deems innocent, though with the notable
exception of the poisoning of Brock (who survives). His victims are, more or
less, all wrapped up in the dangerous and immoral (or amoral) world of drug
manufacturing and dealing. Even Gale Boetticher is not innocent—he knows
for whom he works, and what they do, and while he justifies his actions with a
libertarian perspective, he is enmeshed in a dangerous, criminal scheme.
We are meant to disdain Walt and to cast judgment on his deeds and moti-
vations. He is certainly no role model, but then few epic heroes are. But it is
the journey that is important. The possibility of the hero’s transformation and
reemergence as someone more than he once was, the ability to overcome and
xx INTRODUCTION: WALT’S HERO JOURNEY

triumph over death itself, to become the subject of songs and inspiration of
some sort—these are the marks of the hero. Walt was a nobody who becomes
a legend, his alter-ego’s name whispered in hushed tones, spray painted on
walls, and in the real world, iconic and ubiquitous. There is little sense in dis-
tinguishing Walt from other heroes whose histories are spotted with violence
and death. The world that he leaves behind is not worsened, and the lives of his
children improved by his actions. Numerous criminal drug lords are left dead
in his wake, as well as a clutch of nasty white supremacists and a couple crooked
business people, too.
Perhaps Walt is not a hero as such, but his journey is undeniably the hero’s
journey, and his appeal to us is similarly undeniable. If he ended the show as
merely “evil,” we would have lost interest or felt betrayed. We feel instead a
sense of justice in the final act. Whether we admire Walt or not, see him as a
hero or anti-hero, we relish something about the satisfying end of the show, a
satisfaction few literary works achieve in the context of such moral ambiguity.
The editors of Philosophy and Breaking Bad come to bury Walt, though, not
to praise him, and to examine his life and the world of Breaking Bad philo-
sophically, from a number of different angles. It is rich territory and we would
do well to set aside our prejudices. The careful examinations in the following
chapters offer fresh perspective on this epic tale, the journey Walt takes, and
his victims and triumphs. A number of themes remain constant throughout, in
this book and others like it, but fresh takes emerge with each new examination.
Each new viewpoint of the show offers similar bounty. The world of Breaking
Bad continues in the spin-off Better Call Saul, which will no doubt spawn its
own philosophical examinations, but we return here to the source text, the
founding documents of that world, and the heroic journey of its protagonist,
Walter White.