Sons of Anarchy and Philosophy: Brains Before Bullets -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- Acknowledgments -- Part I "An Equal Mix of Might and Right": Ethics at 92 MPH -- 1 Virtue and Vice in the SAMCROpolis: Aristotle Views Sons of Anarchy -- "Balance Between Might and Right" -- "What Kind of Nasty Shit Did Your Momma Do to You?" -- "A Unique Little Town" -- "I'm Not Sure Which Cancer's Worse: the One in Me or the One in Charming" -- "It's in You. It's Who You Are" -- Notes -- 2 A Prospect's Guide to Nietzsche -- SAMCRO's Master Morality -- "A Student's Prank" -- "I'm Going to Bury These Assholes" -- "The Good Guys Need a Win" -- Why Do We Love These Criminals? -- Notes -- 3 Tig Needs an Escort Home: Is Loyalty a Virtue? -- "What We Are" -- "Rats Deserve to Die" -- Can Loyalty Make Jax Do Bad Things? -- A Virtuous Escort? -- Notes -- 4 A Saint among the Sons: Aquinas on Murder and the Men of Mayhem -- Murder in Charming -- The Cop and the Outlaw -- God and "Mister Mayhem" -- To Kill or To Be Killed: That Is the Question! -- Murder Redux -- Notes -- Part II "Off The Social Grid": The Politics of Mayhem -- 5 SAMCRO versus the Leviathan: Laying Down the (Motor)Cycle of Violence -- "Off the Social Grid" -- "Not Violent by Nature" -- "Nasty, Brutish, and Short" -- "We All Want the Same Thing Here" -- "Retaliation Must Be Harsh and Immediate" -- Sons of Anarchy/Sons of Pride -- Notes -- 6 "The Rat Prince" and The Prince: The Machiavellian Politics of the MC -- "True Freedom Requires Sacrifice and Pain" -- "Blood Was Every Color" -- "Some Kind of Balance" -- "Strength Comes From Good Things" -- Notes -- 7 Chaos and Order: Anarchy in the MC -- Sons of Anarchy, Not Chaos! -- Anarchy 101 -- The "Rebellious Fire" of the First 9 -- Living Off the Social Grid -- There's No "I" in "Motorcycle Club" -- Something's Rotten … -- Notes.

8 "Another Fun-Filled Day in the Six Counties": The Real IRA−Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? -- "They Think Every Act of Violence Is Their Republic Duty" -- "We're Not Merchants, We're Soldiers" -- "The All-Seeing, All-Knowing Wizard of East Belfast" -- "Our Good Priest Getting a Might Too Godly for His Collar" -- Terrorists, Freedom Fighters, and Thugs -- Notes -- 9 SAMCRO Goes to War -- "I Don't Recognize Your Bullshit MC" -- "Can't Get Used to Losing You" -- "I Believe in Family" -- "You Are a Fascist Pig" -- Bad Guys or Good Guys? -- Notes -- Part III "The Concept was Pure, Simple, True": Biker Identity and Meaning -- 10 My Skin, My Self SAMCRO's Ink and Personal Identity -- I "Ink," Therefore I Am -- Badass Aesthetics -- Indelible Images and Inexhaustible Meanings -- "Fire or Knife?" -- Nobody Wants to Be a Shithead -- Notes -- 11 The Faith of Our Sons and the Tragic Quest -- The Tragedy of Jax Teller, Prince of Charming -- The Soul of a Man -- MC and MB: Hunters, Warriors, and Bikers -- The Grim Face of the Sons of Anarchy -- Hierophanies of Death: SOA's Reaper and the Cult of Santa Muerte -- The Tragic Flaws in the Faith of SAMCRO -- Notes -- 12 Once a Biker Slut, Always a Biker Slut: Narrative Identity in Charming -- "What Have You Done With Tara ?" -- "Well, I Guess Someone's True Colors Finally Bled Through" -- "What Kind of Nasty Shit Did Your Momma Do to You?": Tig's Character -- "I Got This": Opie's Promises -- "Once a Biker Slut, Always a …" -- The Death of John Teller and the Life of SAMCRO -- Notes -- 13 SAMCRO and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance -- Zen and the Art of Brawling, Riding, and Picking Up Girls -- Heidegger on Hand-Jobs -- The Problem of Dirty, Oily Hands -- Porn Stars and Other Mounts -- The Buddha and the Biker -- Notes -- Part IV "The Passion in his Heart and the Reason in his Mind": Sex, Love, and Gender.

14 Sometimes a Motorcycle Is Just a Motorcycle: Freud and Hamlet Come to Charming -- "What Kind of Nasty Shit Did Your Momma Do to You?" -- "I Learned From the Best" -- "It's Just Fear and Greed Now" -- What's With All That Chain Smoking? -- "Balance" -- Notes -- 15 When a Charming Woman Speaks -- "She's Just an Old Lady?" -- "Family Is Everything" -- "Men Need to Own Their Pussy" -- "You Don't Have a Normal Life, Baby-You Have This One" -- Notes -- 16 Mothers of Anarchy: Power, Control, and Care in the Feminine Sphere -- "Gemma? She's Just an Old Lady" -- "God Wants Me to Be a Fierce Mother" -- "My Job as Your Old Lady Is to Be Strong When and Where You Can't Be" -- Notes -- Part V "Each Savage Events was a Catalyst for The Next": The Historic and the Homeric -- 17 Sons of History: How SAMCRO Lost and Found Its Way -- "For Ten Years I Gave Up on this Club. Rode My Limit Just to Keep the Patch" -- Time Wounds All Heals -- "Who's That Writin'?" -- "The Past Is Never Dead. It's Not Even Past" -- Notes -- 18 Anarchism and Authenticity, or Why SAMCRO Shouldn't Fight History -- "I'm Looking Forward to Working with You, Mr. Marks" -- Sons of Anarcho-Syndicalism -- SAMCRO's Class Struggle -- "Shuffle on Back to Mayberry" -- "We Got a Little History-Let's Talk About the Present" -- Notes -- 19 Good Old Fashioned Mayhem -- "I Got This": The Way of the Warrior -- Fighting Dirty: Brutality and Revenge -- "God Wants Me to Be a Fierce Mother" -- Laws of the Outlaws -- Do Fear the Reaper -- Notes -- The Road Out of Mayhem -- Father of Anarchy -- "You Can't Sit in this Chair Without Being a Savage" -- Plato Takes Abel Out of a Bad Environment -- Aristotle versus the Outlaws -- How Many Miles to Utopia? -- Notes -- Contributors: Philosophers of Mayhem -- List of Episodes: The Life (and Death?) of Sam Crow -- Index.