Black Sabbath & Philosophy: Mastering Reality -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction: "What Is This That Stands Before Me?" -- Acknowledgments: They Sold Their Souls for Rock 'n' Roll -- Part I Necessary Evil -- 1 Beyond Good and Evil: Facing Your Demons With Black Sabbath and Existentialism -- "Life Has No Meaning, and Death's His Only Friend" -- "I've Seen the Future and I've Left It Behind" -- "I Just Believe in Myself, 'Cause No One Else Is True" -- Unfinished Symphonies -- Notes -- 2 Masters of a Better Possible Reality: Conquering Evil With Love -- Evil Is a Problem -- Pictures of Evil -- Imagining a Better Reality -- Evil on Stage -- Notes -- 3 "Is It the End, My Friend?" Black Sabbath's Apocalypse of Horror -- Birmingham Apocalypse -- Last Things -- Satan Smiling: War and Judgment -- Sabbath Bloody Sabbath: Death and Deliverance -- Planet Caravan: Journeys of Time and Space -- The End Is Near -- Notes -- Part II Playing Devil's Advocate -- 4 Black Sabbath and the Sound of Evil -- Sinister Sounds -- Ask Sabbath -- (Fretting) Hand of Doom -- "Going Through (Key) Changes . . ." -- Sabbath Matters -- Notes -- 5 The Worst of All Possible Worlds: Schopenhauer Meets Sabbath -- One Shot at Glory -- But Against All Odds … -- For Those Who Sow in Flames, an Explanation -- The Original Diabolus in Musica -- Some Final Seeds of Hate -- Notes -- 6 Tony Iommi's Hand of Doom: From Plastic Fingertips to Creative Freedom -- The Phenomenology of Minds, Bodies, and Little Bits of Plastic -- Tony Iommi's Creative Freedom and the Birth of Heavy Metal -- Notes -- Part III The Dark Art of Metal -- 7 The Art of Black Sabbath: Aristotle Joins the Band -- Bringing Aristotle up to Date -- Aristotle Joins Black Sabbath -- The Need for Dark Art -- The Need to Shake up Your Mind -- Sweet Leaf? -- Notes -- 8 Black Sabbath and the Problem of Defining Metal.

Why Do We Need Categories? -- Metal Conditions? -- All in the Sabbath Family -- Black Sabbath as a Prototype for Heavy Metal -- Go Forth and Find New Prototypes -- Notes -- 9 Saint Vitus Dance: The Art of Doom -- The Devil's Dictionary -- What About Paint Vomited onto a Canvas? -- Coughing Art -- Was Doom in the Air? -- Standards of Doom -- Sons of Sabbath -- Notes -- 10 Gods, Drugs, and Ghosts: Finding Dionysus and Apollo in Black Sabbath and the Birth of Heavy Metal -- In Praise of Sweet Leaf and COKE-Cola -- The Birth of Tragedy and the Birth of Heavy Metal -- Goat Songs and Clowns -- A Satanic Interlude -- If Nietzsche Had Been a Black Sabbath Fan -- What Is This That Stands Before Me? -- Warning: Not for Mere Mortals -- Notes -- Part IV Is It Still Sabbath Without Ozzy? -- 11 It's Not Sabbath Unless Ozzy's the Singer (But It's Fine If You Disagree) -- Mastering Metaphysical Reality: Why Geezer Butler Isn't a Plank of Wood -- Behind the Wall of Thought Experiments -- Avoiding the Fictional Seduction of Bad Metaphysics -- Notes -- 12 Fightin' Words: Sabbath Doesn't Need the Ozzman -- Bands vs Line-Ups -- A Sabbath By Any Other Name Would Be as Black -- Going Through Changes -- Criteria, Bloody Criteria -- How Essential Is the Ozzman? -- Which "Sabbath" Is Really Sabbath? -- Notes -- 13 The Name Remains the Same-But Should It? -- On This Album, the Role of the Singer Will Be Played By … -- I Saw It, I Saw It, I Tell You No Lies -- Treating People Just Like Pawns in Chess -- No Stranger to Record Companies -- Sick and Tired … of Changes -- Notes -- Part V Symptoms of The Universe -- 14 Wicked World: The Politics of the Supernatural in Black Sabbath -- "People Got to Work Just to Earn Their Bread" -- "Day of Judgment, God Is Calling" -- "Black Sabbath" -- "The Wizard" -- "N.I.B." -- "Wicked World" -- "War Pigs" -- Final Judgment -- Notes.

15 "Demons, Dreamers, and Madmen": Is Ozzy Going Insane? -- Ozzy's Insanity and Descartes' Demon -- How Not to Fall "Into the Void" of Skepticism -- What Can Ozzy Know? -- Is This Cause to Be Paranoid? -- Notes -- 16 "As the War Machine Keeps Turning": Just War Theory, Pacifism, and the War on Terror -- War Is Hell -- Why Should They Go Out to Fight? -- Necessary Evil or Overkill? -- Until the Day the War Drums Beat No More -- When War Is Obsolete -- "Win the Fight for Peace" -- Notes -- 17 Stop Stereotyping Sabbath: Sex, Subjugation, and Stupidity -- Let's Not Be Hasty Here . . . -- Practically Clubbing Women -- Cavemen Get a Bad Rap and a Bad Rep -- She Was My Woman . . . I Loved Her So . . . -- Crunchy Pleasure -- Notes -- Contributors: Children of the Grave -- Index.