Metallica and Philosophy, William Irwin
Metallica and Philosophy, William Irwin
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Metallica and Philosophy
A Crash Course in Brain Surgery

Author: William Irwin

Narrator: Jeff Preston

Unabridged: 11 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/20/2020

Categories: Nonfiction, Philosophy

Synopsis

Hit the lights and jump in the fire, youre about to enter the School of Rock! Todays lecture will be a crash course in brain surgery. This hard and fast lesson is taught by instructors who graduated from the old schoolthey actually paid $5.98 for The $5.98 EP. But back before these philosophy professors cut their hair, they were lieutenants in the Metal Militia. Metallica is the thinking mans metal band and the headbangers CNN. Snobs and music critics have often dismissed Metallica as mindless noise; were here to set the record straight. In pursuit of truth no matter where it lies, this book considers questions that philosophers have been pondering for ages, including: Does Metallicas music provide an Aristotelian catharsis or does it just make kids go postal? Can Fade to Black save you from suicide? Are we all in the Sanitarium? How can we Escape to be free? What can Nietzsche tell us about the God That Failed? What can Descartes and One tell us about the relationship between the mind and the body? Did Lars make a sound argument against Napster? Metallica is more than just a band, and this book is much more than just a ticket to ride down memory lane. This is an in-depth analysis of the soundtrack to your life. So start your CD player, fire up your iPod, or, better yet, break out the old vinyl. Were going for a ride with the four horsemen, and a few philosophers too.

About William Irwin

William Irwin is Herve A. LeBlanc Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of Philosophy at King's College, Pennsylvania. Irwin's books include Little Siddhartha and God Is a Question, Not an Answer.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Mark on May 25, 2023

I soldiered through this book. That's no accidental choice of verb. Soldiered is the appropriate term, for much of the text gets bogged down in muddy semantics. Also, a fair amount of it deals with Metallica's longtime (and utterly correct) portrayal of war as an unnecessary horror orchestrated by f......more

Goodreads review by James on August 22, 2017

This book contains many essays by different authors which cover various philosophical topics. The degree in which it covers Metallica varies between essays. Some seem like previously written essays that have shoehorned in Metallica lyrics to back them up, whereas others seem more like biographies of......more

Goodreads review by Cain S. on March 03, 2025

3/5 I didn't know what I was expecting from this book. But the following excerpt from a chapter by Manuel Bremer and Daniel Cohnitz is representative of the tenor of what it delivered, and it was a not too bad -if basic- book! “Crash Course In Brain Surgery We can explain Locke’s point with the help of......more

Goodreads review by NightPatrolman on August 06, 2022

I had never before read a ______ and Philosophy book before picking up this one. I was a fan of Metallica, so I thought I was in for a good time. Upon reading, I discovered that this book was centered around recontextualizing Metallica's music and career through the eyes of philosophical concepts, w......more

Goodreads review by Darjeeling on December 29, 2024

This book requires a level of familiarity with Metallica’s lyrics I simply don’t have. Nevertheless, there were some interesting essays that required less of that understanding that helped me understand some aspects of philosophy better than I have in the past. To be clear, I know almost nothing exc......more

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