Description: Stephenie Meyer's wildly popular Twilight is a young adult vampire romance series, in which teenaged Bella falls for a vampire, Edward, and is drawn into his and his family's morally gray universe. Bella, Edward, and their family and friends have faced countless dangers and philosophical dilemmas in the four novels of the series, and this is the first book to parse them. Twilight and Philosophy will answer these and many other questions: What do the struggles of Edward and his family of "vegetarian" vampires to control their biological urge for human blood say about free will? Are vampires morally absolved if they kill only animals and not people? Why does Plato think that Bella should choose Jacob, a werewolf and rival for her affections? Should Edward use his natural ability to read minds? From a feminist perspective, can Edward be a romantic hero or is he just a stalker?
Brief description: Rebecca Housel, a former professor of writing and popular culture, is now an author and editor serving on editorial advisory boards for the Journal of Popular Culture and the Journal of American Culture. She coedited Twilight and Philosophy and X-Men and Philosophy.