Contibutors: Navigators, Mentats, Fremen, and Bene Gesserit viii Introduction: "He Who Controls the Spice Controls the Universe" xivKevin S. Decker A Brief Dune Series Timeline xviii Songs of Muad'Dib: Culture and Religion in Dune 1 1 Liberating Women's Bodies: Feminist Philosophy and the Bene Gesserit of Dune 3Kara Kennedy 2 What Do Zendaya's Blue Eyes Really Mean? 14Edwardo Pérez 3 The Golden Path and Multicultural Meanings of Life 24Ethan Mills 4 Messiahs, Jihads, and God Emperors: Should Humanity Just Give Up Religion? 35Greg Littmann 5 (Re)defining Masculinity and Femininity in Villeneuve's Dune 46Edwardo Pérez Arrakis Awakening: Science and Ecology in Dune 55 6 Spiritual Realm Adaptation: Arrakeen Spice, Terrestrial Psychedelics, and Technique 57A.M. Houot 7 Thinking Like a Desert: Environmental Philosophy and Dune 67Zach Vereb 8 Humans, Machines, and an Ethics for Technology in Dune 76Zachary Pirtle The Wisdom of Muad'Dib: Mind, Memory, and Interpretation in Dune 87 9 "Thou Shalt Make a Human Mind in the Likeness of a Machine": Imitation, Thinking Machines, and Mentats 89Tomi Kokkonen, Ilmari Hirvonen, and Matti Mäkikangas 10 Herbert's Gholas: Mystical Legends and Scientific Inspiration 99Jennifer Mundale 11 Psychological Expanses of Dune: Indigenous Philosophy, Americana, and Existentialism 108Matthew Crippen 12 Thatched Cottages at Cordeville: Hegel, Heidegger, and the Death of Art in Dune 119Kevin S. Decker The Lens of Time: Freedom, History, and Evil in Dune 131 13 Should the Bene Gesserit Be in Charge? 133Greg Littmann 14 Prisoners of Prophecy: Freedom and Foreknowledge in the Dune Series 144William Peden 15 Time versus History: A Conflict Central to Herbert's Dune 153Aaron Irvin The Humanity of Muad'Dib: Morality and Ethics in Dune 163 16 Secher Nbiw and the Child's Right to an Open Future 165Kenneth R. Pike 17 The Spice of Life: Hedonism and Nozick in the Dune Universe 173Luke Hillman 18 "Less Than a God, More Than a Man": Is It Morally Wrong to Make a Kwisatz Haderach? 179Alexandru Dragomir 19 That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Shai-Hulud: Self-overcoming in Nietzsche, Hinduism, and Dune 189Steve Bein Lessons of the Great Revolt: Politics and War in Dune 199 20 The God Emperor and the Tyrant: The Political Theology of Frank Herbert's Dune Saga 201James R.M. Wakefield 21 Lessons from Islamic Philosophy on the Politics of Paul Atreides 211Galipcan Altinkaya and Mehmet Kuyurtar 22 Why Settle for Hobbes's Sovereign When You Could Have a God Emperor? 221R.S. Leiby 23 The Mind at War: Conflict and Cognition in Frank Herbert's Dune 229Sam Forsythe Index 239

Is it morally right to create a savior? Would interplanetary travel change human nature? What is the deeper meaning of desert ecologies? Are there some drugs we would want to be addicted to? Does history repeat itself? “He who controls the spice controls the universe.” In Frank Herbert’s Dune saga, the future of the Imperium depends on one young man, Paul Atreides, son of Duke Leto and heir to the massive fortune promised by the desert planet Arrakis and its vast reservoirs of the drug “melange.” With his mother Jessica, a devotee of the pseudo-religious Bene Gesserit order, Paul must find his place in the culture of the desert-dwelling Fremen while contending with both the devious rival House Harkonnen and the gargantuan desert sandworms—the source of the spice. Dune and Philosophy recruits 23 philosophers to mine not spice, but wisdom from Frank Herbert’s Dune. Part of the New Wave of science fiction of the 60s and 70s, Dune is characterized by literary experimentation with shifting styles, differing narrative points of view, and the “psychedelic” culture of the period. Across the “Duniverse,” including the first in an expected series of films brought to the big screen by Denis Villeneuve in 2021, the long-term strategies and intricate plots of warring Great Houses are driven not just by Heighliner spacecraft, but also by mind-expanding drugs, psychic powers, dystopian themes, race memories, and martial arts allowing control of the mind and the body. Tens of thousands of years into an intergalactic future, can humans endure, or will we sacrifice what is most important in our humanity for power, glory, religion, and of course, the control of the spice? Dune and Philosophy sets an intellectual course through sand and stars to find out. To learn more about the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series, visit www.andphilosophy.com