Can necromancers be good people? Can dragons be feminist care ethicists? Why are we asking? In this episode, producer Eleanor Price asks resident ethics expert (and fellow role-playing game enthusiast) Andy Cullison about the moral theories behind games like Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder. They guide producer Christiane Wisehart through the game mechanic called moral alignment — an attribute that shows how good or evil you are in the game — and how closely these imagined ideas align with real-world philosophy.
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Click here for the episode’s transcript!
Shownotes:
- Further information on Dungeons and Dragons and RPGs
- Moral alignment chart and explanation
- Act and Rule Utilitarianism
- Nietzsche and Will to Power
- Care Ethics
Thanks to Evelyn Brosius for our logo. Music used in this episode (in order of appearance):
- “The Zeppelin” by Blue Dot Sessions
From the Free Music Archive
CC BY-NC 4.0 - “Balti” by Blue Dot Sessions
From the Free Music Archive
CC BY-NC 4.0
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