Better Call Saul
and Philosophy: I Think Therefore I Scam is a collection of twenty-three essays
exploring the philosophical themes in the hit television show Better Call
Saul, a prequel to the TV show Breaking Bad. The sixth and final season of Better Call
Saul aired from April to August 2022.
The central character is Jimmy
McGill, whom we know from Breaking Bad as Saul Goodman. In Better Call Saul he first takes the
name of Saul Goodman from the phrase "S'all Good, Man!" Jimmy/Saul is a natural
con artist who not only scams from self-interest but also because he enjoys it.
He has a strange relationship with his brother, the distinguished lawyer
Charles McGill, who resents Jimmy's delinquency and advantage in parental
affection. Jimmy/Saul becomes a lawyer for a drug cartel, and most of the people
he meets are criminals and other kinds of villains.
Like Breaking Bad, Better
Call Saul raises a wide range of philosophical issues including the nature
of good and evil, personal identity, free will and determinism, the law as it
relates to morality, the ethical implications of the war on drugs, death and
dying, and many more. Better Call Saul and Philosophy offers thoughtful
fans of the show deeper and more provocative insights into the story and the
characters. Topics covered include: the morality
of keeping promises to wrongdoers, the nature of psychosomatic illness,
difficult moral choices facing lawyers, just how good or bad are some of the
compromised characters in the show, the unintended consequences of the War on
Drugs, the similarities between drug cartels and governments, whether bad
people are just unlucky, the perils of self-deception, and whether we ever
really have much of a choice.
Better Call Saul and Philosophy
is Volume 8 in the path-breaking series, Pop Culture and Philosophy.