Popular culture’s take on modern philosophy: Video game Bioshock as a criticism of Ayn Rand’s objectivism

• Authors: Jakub Krogulec

Title variants

EN

Popular culture’s take on modern philosophy: Video game Bioshock as a criticism of Ayn Rand’s objectivism

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The article explores criticism of objectivist philosophy conveyed through the pop cultural medium of a video game, Bioshock. However, compared to previous critical texts commenting on the role of objectivism in the game in question — namely those by Joseph Packer and Grant Tavinor — the following text, instead of visuality, explores three key aspects of Randian philosophy — epistemological, ethical and political — and confronts them with the narrative of the game to find connections and proofs of anti-Randian tendencies. Still, the ultimate goal behind the analysis is not mere re-indication that Bioshock is an anti-Randian story but also a presentation of how game narratives can be utilized to discuss politics, ethics and philosophy. Bioshock proves that video games are indeed a powerful modern medium capable of handling deep, meaningful and even academic narratives.

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wroclawskiego
• Journal: Literatura i Kultura Popularna
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 19
• Pages: 79 - 91

Contributors

author

Jakub Krogulec

• Uniwersytet Wrocławski