ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: The Dream Team xi
The Editor’s Totem: An Elegant Solution for Keeping Track of Reality 1
Introduction: Plato’s Academy Award 11
PART ONE WAS MAL RIGHT? WAS IT ALL JUST A DREAM?: MAKING SENSE OF INCEPTION
1 Was It All a Dream?: Why Nolan’s Answer Doesn’t Matter 17
Ruth Tallman
2 Let Me Put My Thoughts in You: It Was All Just a Dream 31
Jason Southworth
3 Even If It Is a Dream, We Should Still Care 46
Andrew Terjesen
4 The Unavoidable Dream Problem 62
James T. M. Miller
PART TWO IS THE TOP STILL SPINNING?: TACKLING THE UNANSWERABLE QUESTION
5 The Parable of the Spinning Top: Skepticism, Angst, and Cobb’s Choice 77
Katherine Tullmann
6 Reality Doesn’t Really Matter 92
Dan Weijers
7 Why Care whether the Top Keeps Spinning? 108
Bart Engelen
PART THREE IS INCEPTION POSSIBLE?: THE METAPHYSICS, ETHICS, AND MECHANICS OF INCEPTING
8 How to Hijack a Mind: Inception and the Ethics of Heist Films 125
Daniel P. Malloy
9 Inception, Teaching, and Hypnosis: The Ethics of Idea-Giving 140
Adam Barkman
10 Inception and Free Will: Are They Compatible? 152
John R. Fitzpatrick and David Kyle Johnson
11 Honor and Redemption in Corporate Espionage 166
Albert J. Chan
PART FOUR WHAT IS DREAMING?: EXPLORING THE NATURE OF (SHARED) DREAMS (UPON DREAMS)
12 Shared Dreaming and Extended Minds 177
Ken Marable
13 Morally Responsible Dreaming: Your Mind Is the Scene of the Crime 187
Lance Belluomini
14 Dream Time: Inception and the Philosophy of Time 199
Michael J. Sigrist
15 Dreams and Possible Worlds: Inception and the Metaphysics of Modality 215
Charles Joshua Horn
16 Do Our Dreams Occur While We Sleep? 231
Keith Dromm
PART FIVE SHOULD I TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH?: RELIGIOUS THEMES IN INCEPTION
17 Taking a Leap of Faith: A How-to Guide 249
David Kyle Johnson
18 Limbo, Utopia, and the Paradox of Idyllic Hope 265
Clint Jones
19 Unlocking the Vault of the Mind: Inception and Asian Philosophy 276
Scott Daniel Dunbar
PART SIX WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?: FINDING THE HIDDEN LESSONS OF INCEPTION
20 Mal-Placed Regret 295
Kimberly Blessing
21 “You’re Just a Shade”: Knowing Others, and Yourself 310
Daniel Forbes
22 Paradox, Dreams, and Strange Loops in Inception 326
Tyler Shores
APPENDIX : A Safe Full of Secrets: Hidden Gems You May Have Missed 343
CONTRIBUTORS: The Architects 363
INDEX: The PASIV (Plenary Alphabetized Subject Index for This Volume) Device 371