The Ethical Choices of Philosophers in Tom Stoppard’s Philosophical Plays

Abstract

This article examines Tom Stoppard’s Jumpers (1972) and Professional Foul (1977) as complementary investigations into the limits and possibilities of philosophical ethics in modern dramatic form. Through the analytic lens of ethical context, the study argues that Jumpers dramatizes the collapse of moral authority in a culture dominated by opportunism and relativism, where ethical principles lose traction amid performative reasoning and institutional incoherence. Professional Foul, by contrast, relocates philosophical inquiry within a politically volatile landscape, foregrounding how ethical coherence must be forged through situated decisions rather than safeguarded by theoretical consistency. Across both works, Stoppard stages ethical dilemmas, communicative breakdowns, circular dramatic structures, and strategically motivated violations of norms to interrogate the unstable boundary between moral reasoning and real-world action. These plays together suggest that ethical agency is neither guaranteed nor fixed, but continually shaped, tested, and transformed at the shifting intersection of thought and practice.