by Gerhard Adam

Created on: August 06, 2008

As a philosophical concept, the central theme of Star Wars is that of "power" and "corruption". This theme is played out along two specific lines where one is the conversion of a democracy to that of empire, while the other occurs with individuals known as Jedi Knights.

THE EMPIRE

The empire itself is created when political manipulations cause various factions to grant temporary powers to a member of the senate, Senator Palpatine, who is a Sith Lord. At this point, this plays directly into the desires of the senator who seizes upon this opportunity to make himself the emperor.

In this situation, one can argue that the corruption, or fundamental evils of the Sith Lords, is what precipitated this action. However, the central point focuses on the manipulations which allowed it to succeed. This is somewhat analogous to similar power grabs in human history and is used to illustrate how tenous democratic society's existence is. The irony of this storyline is that it was the nature of democracy that voluntarily created the empire, regardless of whether the individuals involved appreciated the manipulations or not.

In effect, this is also similar to strategies in game theory that deal with cooperation or defection, and in this case it illustrates the tremendous advantage one individual gains by violating the rules everyone else thinks they're operating with. It is important to note that as a lone individual, Senator Palpatine, had no power to achieve anything, but rather it was his manipulations in gaining cooperation that allowed the success. It raises the philosophical question of how much responsibility individuals should take for the results that occur. As Padme says when Palpatine is granted imperial authority:

"So this is how democracy dies - to thunderous applause."

Once this transformation to empire is started, the remainder of the story is basically about the emperor's attempts to consolidate power and represent the "evil" forces against which the "good" will struggle.

THE JEDI KNIGHTS

The philosophical theme for the Jedi Knights is even more interesting, because it introduces contradictions that bear some consideration.

Implicit in the Jedi Knight's training is the assumption that it must begin early enough to avoid developing emotional attachments to things which can influence them in later life. Specifically this is the objection and risk inherent in accepting Anakin Skywalker for training.

There are obvious parallels with the Jedi Knights and the Samurai as well

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