Violence, Wars, and the Possibility of Ethical Life in an Apocalypse: A Kantian Reading of <i>The Walking Dead</i>


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SALMAN SAKIZLI S.

OPEN PHILOSOPHY, vol.5, no.1, pp.57-66, 2022 (ESCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 5 Issue: 1
  • Publication Date: 2022
  • Doi Number: 10.1515/opphil-2020-0154
  • Journal Name: OPEN PHILOSOPHY
  • Journal Indexes: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Page Numbers: pp.57-66
  • Istanbul Kültür University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

The Walking Dead is a popular TV series depicting a catastrophic and violent world. After a pandemic that turns humans into zombies, we witness the collapse of civilization with all its institutions, the depletion of the resources, and the struggle to build a new world in the middle of the wars between surviving groups. It illustrates a world of literal and metaphorical homo homini lupus. Some people choose sheer survival, and others try to build a moral, civil world. In this article, I propose a reading of this series from a Kantian perspective by employing his interrelated ideas on history, ethics, and politics. I claim that The Walking Dead represents the state of nature and the violence it contains, and illustrates the course of history toward a civil society as defined by Kant.