The interesting thing about Jedi philosophy is that it doesn't actually exist in the films. Seriously, there are only vague references to a fairly generic spirituality sprinkled rather miserly throughout the six episodes. Oh, there's a great deal we can infer given parallels to real-life warrior cultures, but almost nothing is detailed and what is detailed is largely negative stating what the Jedi don't believe in ("Adventure. Excitement. A Jedi craves not these things.") rather than what they do.
The overwhelming majority of Jedi philosophy and thought comes from the EU which, as I said, I was trying to avoid due to the myriad contradictory elements as well as things that just don't fit. KotoR really nailed the Jedi and, especially IMHO, the Sith. In KotoR the Jedi are depicted as benevolent humanists, though as you point out the council behaves much more in the spirit of Mill's utilitarianism than Kant's ethical imperative. The Sith are devout Nietzscheians, acting along the will to power in order to achieve transcendence beyond good and evil (seriously, the Sith Academy master is one of my favorite characters for just this reason); only Stover's novelization gets it better when Sidious shows Anakin that being a Sith Lord doesn't mean evil, but freedom, and that that freedom can mean choosing to save the galaxy as well as to conquer it (Stover also showed how the pursuit of power for noble ends quickly became pursuit of power for the sake of more power).
I know I'm in the minority, but I actually think KotoR II was an improvement on an already great game in that it exposed the flaws inherent in the dualistic thinking that Jedi or Sith were the only options.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-05-01 04:41 am (UTC)The overwhelming majority of Jedi philosophy and thought comes from the EU which, as I said, I was trying to avoid due to the myriad contradictory elements as well as things that just don't fit. KotoR really nailed the Jedi and, especially IMHO, the Sith. In KotoR the Jedi are depicted as benevolent humanists, though as you point out the council behaves much more in the spirit of Mill's utilitarianism than Kant's ethical imperative. The Sith are devout Nietzscheians, acting along the will to power in order to achieve transcendence beyond good and evil (seriously, the Sith Academy master is one of my favorite characters for just this reason); only Stover's novelization gets it better when Sidious shows Anakin that being a Sith Lord doesn't mean evil, but freedom, and that that freedom can mean choosing to save the galaxy as well as to conquer it (Stover also showed how the pursuit of power for noble ends quickly became pursuit of power for the sake of more power).
I know I'm in the minority, but I actually think KotoR II was an improvement on an already great game in that it exposed the flaws inherent in the dualistic thinking that Jedi or Sith were the only options.