Brains before bullets ancient and modern wisdom for mechanics and motorcycle enthusiasts Essential reading for fans of the show, this book takes readers deeper into the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, the Teller-Morrow family, and the ethics that surround their lives and activities.

Introduction: “Gotta Look This Life in the Eye” viii Acknowledgments: Thanks to the Reaper Crew x Part I “An Equal Mix of Might and Right”: Ethics at 92 mph 1 1 Virtue and Vice in the SAMCROpolis: Aristotle Views Sons of Anarchy 3 Jason T. Eberl 2 A Prospect’s Guide to Nietzsche 16 Tim Jung and Minerva Ahumada 3 Tig Needs an Escort Home: Is Loyalty a Virtue? 29 James Edwin Mahon 4 A Saint among the Sons: Aquinas on Murder and the Men of Mayhem 38 Randall M. Jensen Part II “Off the Social Grid”: The Politics of Mayhem 51 5 SAMCRO versus the Leviathan: Laying Down the (Motor)Cycle of Violence 53 George A. Dunn 6 “The Rat Prince” and The Prince: The Machiavellian Politics of the MC 65 Timothy M. Dale and Joseph J. Foy 7 Chaos and Order: Anarchy in the MC 73 Bruno de Brito Serra 8 “Another Fun-Filled Day in the Six Counties”: The Real IRA—Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? 85 Philip Smolenski 9 SAMCRO Goes to War 94 Alex Leveringhaus Part III “The Concept Was Pure, Simple, True”: Biker Identity and Meaning 105 10 My Skin, My Self: SAMCRO’s Ink and Personal Identity 107 Charlene Elsby 11 The Faith of Our Sons and the Tragic Quest 117 Kevin Corn 12 Once a Biker Slut, Always a Biker Slut: Narrative Identity in Charming 128 Minerva Ahumada and Tim Jung 13 SAMCRO and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance 139 Massimiliano L. Cappuccio Part IV “The Passion in His Heart and the Reason in His Mind”: Sex, Love, and Gender 151 14 Sometimes a Motorcycle Is Just a Motorcycle: Freud and Hamlet Come to Charming 153 Andrea Zanin 15 When a Charming Woman Speaks 165 Leslie A. Aarons 16 Mothers of Anarchy: Power, Control, and Care in the Feminine Sphere 175 Leigh C. Kolb Part V “Each Savage Event Was a Catalyst for the Next”: The Historic and the Homeric 187 17 Sons of History: How SAMCRO Lost and Found Its Way 189 Peter S. Fosl 18 Anarchism and Authenticity, or Why SAMCRO Shouldn’t Fight History 201 Peter S. Fosl 19 Good Old Fashioned Mayhem 214 Greg Littmann 20 The Road Out of Mayhem 225 Greg Littmann Contributors: Philosophers of Mayhem 237 List of Episodes: The Life (and Death?) of Sam Crow 243 Index 246 

Are we right to admire members of a criminal organization? Are the Sons of Anarchy really anarchists? How does their relationship to their bikes help to shape the Sons’ moral code? Does membership in the MC tend to foster virtue or vice? How do the club’s practices and moral code make it like a religion? FX’s hit television series Sons of Anarchy draws viewers into the morally ambiguous world of a close-knit outlaw motorcycle club, where standard societal conventions and authority are shunned and replaced with a moral framework based on the bonds of brotherhood, family, and community and where members frequently war with other outlaw groups and the federal government to protect their interests and those of their home base, the town of Charming, California. Featuring essays by philosophical fans of the show and drawing on the ideas of some of history’s greatest philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Marx, and Nietzsche, Sons of Anarchy and Philosophy digs deep into the moral and political aspects of life in the MC – the ethics of loyalty, honor, and revenge, individual and group identity, the morality of war and terrorism, political authority, and religion. Essential reading for fans of the show, this book takes readers deeper into the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, the Teller-Morrow family, and the ethics that surround their lives and activities.