Kristopher G. Phillips & J. Jeremy Wisnewski 
Arrested Development and Philosophy [EPUB ebook] 
They’ve Made a Huge Mistake

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: And Now a Few Words from the New CEOs of
the Bluth Company ix
INTRODUCTION 1
Kristopher Phillips
PART ONE FAMILY FIRST
1 Is the Examined Life a Huge Mistake?: Happiness,
Self-Knowledge, and the Bluths 7
Jason Southworth and Ruth Tallman
2 Kissing Cousins: Incest, Naturalism, and the Yuck Factor
23
Deborah R. Barnbaum
3 Freudian Arrested Development 33
Tim Jung
4 Don’t Know Thyself: Gob and the Wisdom of Bad Faith 46
Daniel P. Malloy
PART TWO A BUSINESS MODEL
5 Dr. Fünke’s 100 Percent Natural Good-Time Alienation
Solution 61
Jeff Ewing
6 Family First: How Not to Run a Business 73
Brett Gaul
7 Bourgeois Bluths: Arrested Development and Class Status
85
Rachel Mc Kinney
PART THREE SOME HUGE MISTAKES
8 What Whitey Isn’t Ready to Hear: Social Identity in
Arrested Development 99
J. Jeremy Wisnewski
9 ‘I Just Blue Myself’: The Use and Abuse of Language in
Arrested Development 111
M. E. Verrochi
10 To Bias Tobias: Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Arrested
Development 123
Darci Doll
11 I’m Oscar.com: The Problem(s) of Personal Identity in
Arrested Development 136
Kristopher Phillips
PART FOUR THE ONE WHERE THEY DO EPISTEMOLOGY
12 You Can’t Do Magic: Gob Bluth and the Illusionists’ Craft
151
Michael Cholbi
13 Is Justified True Bluth Belief Knowledge? 162
Brett Coppenger and Kristopher Phillips
14 Bunkers and Balls: Arrested Development,
Underdetermination, and the Theory-ladenness of Observation
172
Michael Da Silva
PART FIVE SOLID AS IRAQ: POLITICS AND ETHICS ARRESTED
15 No Touching! George Sr.’s Brush with Treason 185
Douglas Paletta and Paul Franco
16 ‘I’ve Made a Huge Mistake’: George Oscar Bluth Jr. and the
Role of Error in Character Development 197
Christopher C. Kirby, Jonathan Hillard, and Mathew
Holmes
17 The Comedy of Contradiction 210
Erin Fay and Willie Young
PARTS IX: AND ON THE EPILOGUE . . .
18 And Now the Story of a Wealthy Family Who Lost Everything:
Arrested Development, Narrative, and How We Find Meaning
227
Tyler Shores
CONTRIBUTORS: Banana Stand Employee Roster 241
INDEX: Banana Stand Inventory 247

KRISTOPHER G. PHILLIPS is a Ph D candidate (ABD) in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Iowa.
J. JEREMY WISNEWSKI is an associate professor of philosophy at Hartwick College. He is the editor of Family Guy and Philosophy, The Office and Philosophy, and 30 Rock and Philosophy, and coeditor of X-Men and Philosophy and Twilight and Philosophy.
WILLIAM IRWIN is a professor of philosophy at King’s College. He originated the philosophy and popular culture genre of books as coeditor of the bestselling The Simpsons and Philosophy and has overseen recent titles including House and Philosophy, Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy, and Mad Men and Philosophy.
To learn more about the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series, visit www.andphilosophy.com