LEGO and Philosophy

How profound is a little plastic building block? It turns out the answer is “very”! 22 chapters explore philosophy through the world of LEGO which encompasses the iconic brick itself as well as the animated televisions shows, feature films, a vibrant adult fan base with over a dozen yearly conventions, an educational robotics program, an award winning series of videogames, hundreds of books, magazines, and comics, a team-building workshop program for businesses and much, much more. Dives into the many philosophical ideas raised by LEGO bricks and the global multimedia phenomenon they have created Tackles metaphysical, logical, moral, and conceptual issues in a series of fascinating and stimulating essays Introduces key areas of philosophy through topics such as creativity and play, conformity and autonomy, consumption and culture, authenticity and identity, architecture, mathematics, intellectual property, business and environmental ethics Written by a global group of esteemed philosophers and LEGO fans A lively philosophical discussion of bricks, minifigures, and the LEGO world that will appeal to LEGO fans and armchair philosophers alike

Notes on Contributors ix Introduction: Play Well, Philosophize Well! 1 Sondra Bacharach and Roy T. Cook Part I LEGO® and Creativity 5 1 Constructing Creativity 7 Mary Beth Willard 2 Building Blocks of Thought: LEGO® and the Philosophy of Play 17 Tyler Shores 3 LEGO® Formalism in Architecture 27 Saul Fisher 4 “That Was My Idea!”: LEGO® Ideas and Intellectual Property 39 Michael Gettings Part II LEGO®, Ethics, and Rules 49 5 “You Know the Rules!” What’s Wrong with The Man Upstairs? 51 Jon Robson 6 Searching for “The Special”: The LEGO® Movie and the Value of (LEGO®) Persons 59 Alexander Quanbeck 7 LEGO® and the Social Blocks of Autonomy 69 Eric Chelstrom 8 Building and Dwelling with Heidegger and LEGO® Toys 79 Ellen Miller Part III LEGO® and Identity 89 9 Ninjas, Kobe Bryant, and Yellow Plastic: The LEGO® Minifigure and Race 91 Roy T. Cook 10 Girl, LEGO® Friends is not your Friend! Does LEGO® Construct Gender Stereotypes? 103 Rebecca Gutwald 11 Representation in Plastic and Marketing: The Significance of the LEGO® Women Scientists 113 Rhiannon Grant and Ruth Wainman 12 Real Signature Figures: LEGO® Minifigures and the Human Individual 123 Robert M. Mentyka Part IV LEGO®, Consumption, and Culture 133 13 LEGO® Values: Image and Reality 135 Sondra Bacharach and Ramon Das 14 Small Farms, Big Ideas: LEGO® Farm and Agricultural Idealism 145 Craig Van Pelt 15 The Reality of LEGO®: Building the Apocalypse 153 David Lueth 16 The American Archipelago: Touring the Nation at Miniland USA 163 Samantha J. Boardman Part V LEGO®, Metaphysics, and Math 173 17 The Brick, the Plate, and the Uncarved Block: LEGO® as an Expression of Dao 175 Steve Bein 18 LEGO®, Impermanence, and Buddhism 185 David Kahn 19 LEGO® and the Building Blocks of Metaphysics 197 Stephan Leuenberger 20 What Can You Build? 207 Bob Fischer 21 Playing with LEGO® and Proving Theorems 217 Fenner Tanswell Glossary 227 Alice Leber-Cook and Roy T. Cook Index 233