Abstracts and subsequent essays should be philosophically substantial but accessible, written to engage the intelligent lay reader. Works focusing on the six Star Wars films, as well as any canonical entries in the Star Wars “Expanded Universe” are acceptable, including novels, comics, video games, and television series such as The Clone Wars. Contributors of accepted essays will receive an honorarium.

Possible themes and topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:

Darth Nietzsche? The Sith’s “will to power”; Double suns rising: Eastern philosophy and Star Wars; The right and/or the good as “a point of view”; Dirty (prosthetic) hands: is Anakin the Jedi a collaborator in the Republic’s downfall?; The virtue of family: should the Jedi be celibate?; “Never tell me the odds”: a universe of random chance or rational order?; Machiavelli—the new Palpatine or Padmé?; The logic of Empire versus Republic; Darth Bane’s pedagogy: is suffering good for Darth Zannah’s soul?; Is knowledge of evil inherently corruptive (or is some knowledge inherently evil)? The tragedy of Darth Caedus; Becoming “one” with the Force: Jedi metaphysics of personal identity; “The Force is One”: can there be any other religions in the Star Wars universe?; Qui-Gon’s transcendence: is love the key to immortality?; Sun Tzu, the Clone Wars and the ethics of warfare; Losing oneself in the hive mind of the Killiks; Political virtue in the Old and New Republics: Palpatine, Thrawn, and Borsk Fey’lya; The value of redemptive sacrifice: Darth Vader, Kyp Durron, and Mara Jade; The “sins of the father”: have the Solo children paid for their grandfather’s evil?; The capitalist imperative: is Lando Calrissian a hero?; Collateral damage on the Death Star: is Kevin Smith right that the Rebellion is a “terrorist” organization?; “I thought they smelled bad on the outside”: the use and abuse of animals in the Star Wars universe; Pregnant Padmé and Slave Leia: Star Wars’ feminine role models; “My Kind of Scum”: bounty hunting and moral relativism; Searle’s Huttese Room: are droids intelligent?; “Happy Life Day!”: defining the canon of Star Wars.