New class explores thorny matters of ethics and free will through video games. Ready, player one?

(Content note: This article briefly touches on the extreme violence and explicit nature of selected video games.)

San Diego State University’s new and already wildly popular fall semester class on video games is housed under what might be regarded as an improbable roof: the Department of Philosophy.

Plato meets Grand Theft Auto.

Conceived of and taught by lecturer Rutger Hadge in the College of Arts and Letters, the three-credit Philosophy and Video Games course (PHIL 339) initially was approved for a capacity of up to 40 students, expanding to 60 ― then 75 ― as its waitlist burgeoned. 

The idea grew from a department discussion about two years ago on how to draw more students into philosophy and make what sometimes is thought of as a dusty intellectual subject more culturally relevant. Accordingly, another new class for 2024 explores Ethics and Artificial Intelligence (PHIL 337). 

Hadge wants everyone to understand this is no blow off class. It’s every bit a traditional philosophy course, using video games as a framework to examine classical themes tackled by Aristotle, Descartes and other world-known philosophers, and their beliefs on the essence of human existence. 

Case in point: Plato’s Theory of Forms asserts that “the images that we see around us are not true reality,” said Hadge. “We’re seeing a degraded form of reality.”

Now consider the eye-popping, photorealistic storylines of today’s best video game designers. “Plato would say in one sense, when we’re playing a video game we’re getting further away from reality because you’re looking at an image of an image,” Hadge said. “This is similar to Plato’s view of art. Art is a copy of a copy.”

So while video games may disengage their players from reality, Hadge said the class will explore “how video games can and do help us understand the world we live in and experience.”

Philosophy and Video Games is among a bumper crop of new courses in SDSU’s fall 2024 catalog, including Climate Mathematics (MATH 586), Current Trends in Music Education (MUSIC 633), and Hell (CLASS 333).

Hadge grew up on games like Pokémon for Game Boy and Tekken for PlayStation; he keeps Poké Balls with figurines of the characters Pikachu and Squirtle on them in his CAL fourth-floor office. These days he’s more likely to spend his leisure time on street-fighter games.

Not surprisingly for a philosophy course, it’s only natural for those talking about it to pose a lot of questions.

“There’s a lot of content in video games that lends itself to philosophical analysis and discussion,” Hadge said. “I think we’re asking a fundamental question of what is a video game, metaphysically speaking. What kind of experience do we have when we’re playing a video game and what does it mean? Do we all have the same experience when we play a video game?”

There is no required video gameplay in the syllabus nor do students need to own any console, although Hadge is exploring the possibility of optional activity in the Esports Engagement Center in the University Library Addition.

“I encouraged the development of this course and approved it because it promises to give students an easy and familiar entry into philosophy and the weird and fun questions we encounter in it,” department chair Steven Barbone wrote in an email response to a request for comment. “Philosophy isn't just tracking what a bunch of dead guys in armchairs were thinking, but we can find it in our everyday lives.”

Barbone continued: “Are avatars real? If so, in what sense? They certainly aren't fake or imaginary. Do they stop existing when we aren't playing?”

Hadge plans to explore concepts of free will, a traditional topic in philosophy, and how that relates to the programming in video games in which the player’s actions are constrained and the outcome can be predetermined. “Maybe you don’t have any moral responsibility,” he mused, “because you’re just doing what the game allows you to do.”

Barbone noted that many games give players at least some control over “who lives and who dies,” as do many ethical issues.

Similarly, Hadge said the course explores the more socially conscious question of what is “ethically permissible” in video games.

Consider the Mortal Kombat series, in which players obliterate opponents in “fatalities” that sever heads, lop off limbs and send flesh and entrails flying through the air in graphic detail. Or Grand Theft Auto, the 27-year-old franchise that requires players to complete violent missions in order to advance. Users can earn extra money by mowing down innocent bystanders or committing robberies. Players may also bribe or even kill police, join violent gangs and hijack aircraft. 

Is that OK? 

And does the answer change in worldwide multiplayer games using hyper-realistic virtual reality simulations?

Ask a consequentialist, like Jeremy Bentham or John Stuart Mill.

“This means you think the consequences matter,” said Hadge. “So your ethical decisions are made based on the outcome … and not the isolated principle itself.” 

A consequentialist, as the students will learn, would say the gratuitous violence of GTA and Mortal Kombat doesn’t matter because no actual person is harmed. A non-consequentialist, meanwhile, might see killing as inherently wrong, even in games.

“I want to equip students interested in this field with the framework to approach these problems,” said Hadge. “I’m not going to give people the answers.”

He paused just a moment and added: “I don’t know the answers.”