Jacob Graham is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Virginia. His research focuses on ancient and modern philosophy, as well the value of philosophy in popular culture.

Tom Sparrow is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Slippery Rock University, Pennsylvania. His primary research is in continental philosophy and phenomenology. His recent publications include Plastic Bodies (2015) and The End of Phenomenology (2014).

William Irwin (series editor) is Herve A. LeBlanc Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of Philosophy at King's College in Pennsylvania. Irwin originated the philosophy and popular culture genre of books with Seinfeld and Philosophy in 1999 and is the General Editor of The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series. He has overseen recent titles including The Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy, Wonder Woman and Philosophy, and Alien and Philosophy.

Introduction: Welcome to the Psychosphere ix
Jacob Graham and Tom Sparrow

Part I "It's All One Ghetto, Man ... a Giant Gutter in Outer Space": Pessimism and Anti-natalism 1

1 Why Life Rather than Death? Answers from Rustin Cohle and Arthur Schopenhauer 3
Sandra Shapshay

2 Grounding Carcosa: Cosmic Horror and Philosophical Pessimism in True Detective 11
Christopher Mountenay

3 Hart and Cohle: The Hopeful Pessimism of True Detective 22
Joshua Foa Dienstag

4 Loving Rust's Pessimism: Rationalism and Emotion in True Detective 31
Rick Elmore

5 Rust's Anti-natalism: The Moral Imperative to "Opt Out of a Raw Deal" 42
Chris Byron

Part II "we Get the World We Deserve": Cruelty, Violence, Evil, and Justice 53

6 Where Is the Cruelty in True Detective? 55
G. Randolph Mayes

7 Nevermind: Subjective and Objective Violence in Vinci 65
Luke Howie

8 Naturalism, Evil, and the Moral Monster: The Evil Person in True Detective 76
Peter Brian Barry

9 "But I Do Have a Sense of Justice": Law and Justice in the Bleak World of Vinci 87
Beau Mullen

Part III "everybody's Nobody": Consciousness, Existence, and Identity 97

10 A Dream Inside a Locked Room: The Illusion of Self 99
Evan Thompson

11 I Am Not Who I Used to Be, But Am I Me? Personal Identity and the Narrative of Rust 108
Andrew M. Winters

12 "The Light Is Winning" 120
Sarah K. Donovan

13 The Tragic Misstep: Consciousness, Free Will, and the Last Midnight 132
Daniel P. Malloy

Part IV "this Is My Least Favorite Life": Noir, Tragedy, and Philosopher-detectives 143

14 The Tragedy of True Detective Season Two: Living Our "Least Favorite Lives" 145
Alison Horbury

15 The Noir Detective and the City 158
Chuck Ward

16 Cohle and Oedipus: The Return of the Noir Hero 169
Daniel Tutt

Part V "Time Is a Flat Circle": Time in True Detective 177

17 Time Is a Flat Circle: Nietzsche's Concept of Eternal Recurrence 179
Lawrence J. Hatab

18 Eternal Recurrence and the Philosophy of the "Flat Circle" 186
Paul A. DiGeorgio

Known Associates 196

Index 201