J. Jeremy Wisnewski 
The Office and Philosophy 
Scenes from the Unexamined Life

Just when you thought paper couldn’t be more exciting, this
book comes your way! This book–jammed full of
paper–unites philosophy with one of the best shows ever:
The Office. Addressing both the current American incarnation
and the original British version, The Office and Philosophy
brings these two wonders of civilization together for a frolic
through the mundane yet curiously edifying worlds of
Scranton’s Dunder-Mifflin and Slough’s Wernham-Hogg.

Is Michael Scott in denial about death? Are Pam and Jim ever
going to figure things out? Is David Brent an essentialist?
Surprisingly, The Office can teach us about the mind,
Aristotle, and humiliation. Even more surprisingly, paper companies
can allow us to better understand business ethics. Don’t
believe it? Open this book, and behold its beautiful
paper…

Join the philosophical fray as we explore the abstract world of
philosophy through concrete scenes of the unexamined life in The
Office. You may discover that Gareth Keenan is secretly a
brilliant logician, that Dwight Schrute is better off deceiving
himself, that David Brent is an example of hyperreality, and that
Michael Scott is hopelessly lost (but you probably already knew
that!).

Table of Content

Introduction.

A note to our Suppliers in the US and the UK: Support Philosophy
– it uses lots of paper….

A Note to Bitter Brits and Confused Americans….

The Dundies: Some Awards for Making this Book Possible.

Memo 1: Paper Thin Morality.

1. Screws and Nails: Paper Tigers and Moral Monsters in The
Office (US): J. Jeremy Wisnewski (Hartwick College).

2. Flirting in The Office: What Can Jim and Pam’s Romantic
Antics Teach Us about Moral Philosophy? (US): Mark D. White
(College of Staten Island).

3. Can Michael Ever Learn?: Empathy and the Self-Other Gap (US):
Andrew Terjesen (Rhodes College).

4. Leaving the Dice Alone: Pointlessness and Helplessness at
Wernham-Hogg (UK): Wim Vandekerckhove (Ghent University) and Eva
Tsahuridu (University of Greenwich Business School).

5. The Virtues of Humor: What The Office Can Teach Us About
Aristotle’s Ethics (UK): Sean Mc Aleer (University of
Wisconsin-Eau Claire).

Memo 2: Know Thyself!.

6. Pam and Jim on the Make: The Epistemology of Self-Deception
(US): Stefanie Rocknak (Hartwick College).

7. What Dwight Doesn’t Know Can’t Hurt Him–Or
Can It?.

Deception and Self-Deception in The Office (US): Randall M.
Jensen (Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa).

8. Authenticity or Happiness? Michael Scott and the Ethics of
Self-Deception (US): Peter Murphy (University of Indianapolis) and
Jonathan Evans (University of Indianapolis).

9. Humiliation in The Office (and at Home) (US): John Elia
(Wilson College).

Memo 3: Funny and not-so-funny Business.

10. Laughter between Distraction and Awakening: Marxist Themes
in The Office (US): Michael Bray (at Southwestern University).

11. Being-in-The Office: Sartre, the Look, and the Viewer (US):
Matthew Meyer (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire) and Greg
Schneider (University of Minnesota).

12. A Boy that Swims Faster than a Shark: Jean Baudrillard
Visits The Office (UK): Russell Manning (Yarra Valley Grammar,
Melbourne).

Memo 4: Mind Your Business!.

13. Stakeholders vs. Stockholders in the American Office (US):
Rory E. Kraft, Jr. (York College of Pennsylvania).

14. Attacking with the North: Affirmative Action and The Office
(US): David Kyle Johnson (King’s College in
Wilkes-Barre).

15. Darkies, Dwarves, and Benders: Political (In)Correctness in
The Office (UK): Thomas Nys (Utrecht University).

16. The Hostile Office: Michael as a Sexual Harasser (US): Keith
Dromm (Northwestern State University).

17. The Obscene Watermark: Corporate Responsibility at
Dunder-Mifflin (US): David Kyle Johnson (King’s College in
Wilkes-Barre).

Memo 5: Philosophy at the water-cooler….

18. For L’Amour: Love and Friendship in The Office (US):
Robert Arp (University at Buffalo) and Jamie Watson (Florida State
University).

19. Look at the Ears! The Problem of Natural Kinds (UK): Thomas
Nys (Utrecht University).

20. Gareth Keenan Investigates Paraconsistent Logic: The Case of
the Missing Tim and the Redundancy Paradox (UK): Morgan Luck
(Charles Sturt University).

21. Being Your Self in The Office (US): Rick Mayock (West Los
Angeles College).

22. Michael Scott is Going to Die (US): Meg Lonergan (Hartwick
College) and J. Jeremy Wisnewski (Hartwick College).

Appendix A, From Our Office to Yours: The University of Scranton
and The Office.

Appendix B, Question: What do you need to know about Dwight K.
Schrute?.

Corporate Filing System (Index).

Employees (Notes on Contributors)

About the author

J. Jeremy Wisnewski is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Hartwick College. He is the author of Wittgenstein and Ethical Inquiry: A Defense of Ethics as Clarification (Continuum, 2007) and the editor of Family Guy and Philosophy (Blackwell, 2007).