Notes on Contributors ix Introduction: Play Well, Philosophize Well! 1 Sondra Bacharach and Roy T. Cook Part I LEGO® and Creativity 5 1 Constructing Creativity 7 Mary Beth Willard 2 Building Blocks of Thought: LEGO® and the Philosophy of Play 17 Tyler Shores 3 LEGO® Formalism in Architecture 27 Saul Fisher 4 "That Was My Idea!": LEGO® Ideas and Intellectual Property 39 Michael Gettings Part II LEGO®, Ethics, and Rules 49 5 "You Know the Rules!" What's Wrong with The Man Upstairs? 51 Jon Robson 6 Searching for "The Special": The LEGO® Movie and the Value of (LEGO®) Persons 59 Alexander Quanbeck 7 LEGO® and the Social Blocks of Autonomy 69 Eric Chelstrom 8 Building and Dwelling with Heidegger and LEGO® Toys 79 Ellen Miller Part III LEGO® and Identity 89 9 Ninjas, Kobe Bryant, and Yellow Plastic: The LEGO® Minifigure and Race 91 Roy T. Cook 10 Girl, LEGO® Friends is not your Friend! Does LEGO® Construct Gender Stereotypes? 103 Rebecca Gutwald 11 Representation in Plastic and Marketing: The Significance of the LEGO® Women Scientists 113 Rhiannon Grant and Ruth Wainman 12 Real Signature Figures: LEGO® Minifigures and the Human Individual 123 Robert M. Mentyka Part IV LEGO®, Consumption, and Culture 133 13 LEGO® Values: Image and Reality 135 Sondra Bacharach and Ramon Das 14 Small Farms, Big Ideas: LEGO® Farm and Agricultural Idealism 145 Craig Van Pelt 15 The Reality of LEGO®: Building the Apocalypse 153 David Lueth 16 The American Archipelago: Touring the Nation at Miniland USA 163 Samantha J. Boardman Part V LEGO®, Metaphysics, and Math 173 17 The Brick, the Plate, and the Uncarved Block: LEGO® as an Expression of Dao 175 Steve Bein 18 LEGO®, Impermanence, and Buddhism 185 David Kahn 19 LEGO® and the Building Blocks of Metaphysics 197 Stephan Leuenberger 20 What Can You Build? 207 Bob Fischer 21 Playing with LEGO® and Proving Theorems 217 Fenner Tanswell Glossary 227 Alice Leber-Cook and Roy T. Cook Index 233.