Doctor Who and Philosophy

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Doctor Who and Philosophy Page 48

by Courtland Lewis


  Da Vinci, Leonardo

  “The Daemons,”

  “Dalek,”

  Dalek Caan

  “The Dalek Invasion of Earth,”

  “The Dalek Masterplan,”

  Dalek Sec

  Daleks

  “The Daleks,”

  “Daleks in Manhattan,”

  Dals

  Darwin, Charles

  Davies, Russell T

  Davison, Peter (Fifth Doctor)

  Davros

  “The Deadly Assassin,”

  Death Zone

  Deci, Edward

  Dennett, Daniel

  Descartes, René

  Deleuze, Gilles

  Derrida, Jacques

  “Destiny of the Daleks,”

  “Doctor Who, The TV Movie,”

  Doctor-Donna

  “The Doctor’s Daughter,”

  Donna Noble

  “Doomsday,”

  Douglas, Mary

  Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

  “Dragonfire,”

  Duggan

  Dupré, John A.

  “Earthshock,”

  Eccleston, Christopher (Ninth Doctor)

  Eco, Umberto

  “The Edge of Destruction,”

  Eighth Doctor, see McGann, Paul

  Einstein, Albert

  Eldrad

  Eleventh Doctor, see Smith, Matt

  “The Eleventh Hour,”

  Elizabeth “Liz” Shaw, Dr.

  Elton Pope

  Emerson, Ralph Waldo

  empirical adequacy

  “The Empty Child,”

  “The End of Time,”

  “The End of the World,”

  “The Enemy of the World,”

  essentialism

  eternalism

  “The Evil of the Daleks,”

  “Evolution of the Daleks,”

  “The Face of Evil,”

  Faceless Ones, the

  “The Faceless Ones,”

  Family of Blood

  “The Family of Blood,”

  “Father’s Day,”

  Field, Hartry

  Fifth Doctor, see Davison, Peter

  “The Fires of Pompeii,”

  First Doctor, see Hartnell, William

  First Law of Time

  Fiske, John

  “The Five Doctors,”

  “Flesh and Stone,”

  “Forest of the Dead,”

  formalism

  Foucault, Michel

  four dimensionalism

  Fourth Doctor, see Baker, Tom

  Fraassen, Bas van

  Frankfurt, Harry

  Freud, Sigmund

  “Frontier in Space,”

  Gardner, Julie

  Gelth

  “Genesis of the Daleks,”

  Gillat, Gary

  Gilligan, Carol

  “The Girl in the Fireplace,”

  grandfather paradox

  Grant, Hugh

  “The Greatest Show in the Galaxy,”

  “The Green Death,”

  Grice, Paul

  “Gridlock,”

  growing block theory

  Guardian, Black

  White

  “The Hand of Fear,”

  “The Happiness Patrol,”

  Harry

  Hartnell, William (First Doctor)

  Hath

  Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

  Heidegger, Martin

  Hepburn, Ronald

  “The Highlanders,”

  Hilbert spaces

  Hitchcock, Alfred

  Hitler, Adolf

  Hoagland, Sarah Lucia

  Hobbes, Thomas

  Holocaust

  Horkheimer, Max

  “Horror of Fang Rock,”

  Houston, Barbara

  Horwich, Paul

  Howarth, Chris

  “Human Nature,”

  Hume, David

  Hursthouse, Rosalind

  Huxley, Aldous

  Ian

  “The Idiot’s Lantern,”

  “The Impossible Planet,”

  indispensability arguments

  “Inferno,”

  “The Invasion,”

  “The Invasion of Time,”

  “The Invisible Enemy,”

  Ismael, Jenann

  Jabe

  Jack Harkness, Captain

  Jackie Tyler

  Jackson Lake

  James, William

  Jamie McCrimmon

  Jenny

  Jesus Christ

  Jo Grant

  Joan Redfern

  John Smith

  Jones, Harriet

  “Journey’s End,”

  Judoon

  K-9

  K-9 and Company

  K’anpo Rinpoche

  Kaleds

  Kant, Immanuel

  Kastrians

  Kaufmann, Walter

  Keeper of Traken

  “The Keeper of Traken,”

  Kennedy, John F.

  “The Keys of Marinus,”

  “Kinda,”

  “The King’s Demons,”

  Kleig, Eric

  Kohlberg, Lawrence

  Krillitane

  Kripke, Saul

  Krutikov, Georgii

  Lambert, Verity

  “Last of the Time Lords,”

  law of non-contradiction

  “The Lazarus Experiment,”

  Le Verrier, Urban

  Leela

  Leibniz, Gottfried

  Leibniz’s Law

  “The Leisure Hive,”

  Lethbridge-Stewart, Brigadier

  Lewis, David

  Locke, John

  “Logopolis,”

  Lost in Space

  Lucy Saxon

  Lumic, John

  Lyons, Steve

  MacIntyre, Alasdair

  Mandragora Helix

  Manning, Rita

  Mara

  “Marco Polo,”

  “Mark of the Rani,”

  Martha Jones

  “The Masque of Mandragora,”

  “The Massacre,”

  Master, The

  Matrix

  Mavic Chen

  “Mawdryn Undead,”

  Mayden, Richard

  Mayr, Ernst

  McCoy, Sylvester (Seventh Doctor)

  McGann, Paul (Eighth Doctor)

  “Meglos,”

  Mezzaline

  Mickey Smith

  “Midnight,”

  Mill, John Stuart

  “The Mind of Evil,”

  “The Mind Robber,”

  Moffat, Steven

  Monoids

  “The Moonbase,”

  Morbius

  Morrison, Grant

  “The Mutants,”

  Mutos

  “The Mysterious Planet,”

  “The Myth Makers,”

  narrative identity theory

  Nation, Terry

  natural kinds

  Nazis

  Nehamas, Alexander

  Nestene

  “New Earth,”

  Newman, Kim

  Newtonian theory of gravity

  “The Next Doctor,”

  Nietzsche, Friedrich

  nihilism

  Ninth Doctor, see Eccleston, Christopher

  Noddings, Nel

  nominal kinds

  Nozick, Robert

  Nussbaum, Martha

  Nyssa

  Obama, Barack

  Omega, Time Lord

  Ood

  Osirans

  Paley, William

  paradox machine

  parallel universes

  Parfit, Derek

  Parsons, Paul

  “The Parting of the Ways,”

  “Partners in Crime,”

  Pasteur, Louis

  Penfield, Wilder

  Peri

  personal identity

  Pertwee, Jon (Third Doctor)

  Peters, Ted


  Phineas Gage

  “The Pirate Planet,”

  “Planet of Evil,”

  “Planet of Fire,”

  “Planet of the Ood,”

  “Planet of the Spiders,”

  Plato

  Platonism

  platonism

  Piper, Billie

  “The Poison Sky,”

  Polly

  Pond, Amy (Amelia)

  positivism

  possible worlds

  possible-world-actualists

  “The Power of the Daleks,”

  “The Power of Kroll,”

  presentism

  Prometheus

  “Pyramids of Mars,”

  Pythagoras

  Quantum mechanics

  Quine, W.V.

  Racnoss

  Ramachandran, V.S.

  Rani

  Rassilon

  realism, scientific

  Reid, Thomas

  “The Reign of Terror,”

  relativity theory

  general

  special

  “Remembrance of the Daleks,”

  “Resurrection of the Daleks,”

  “Revelation of the Daleks,”

  “Revenge of the Cybermen,”

  “The Ribos Operation,”

  Ricoeur, Paul

  Rills

  “Rise of the Cybermen,”

  River Song, Professor

  “Robot,”

  Romana

  “The Romans,”

  Rorty, Richard

  “Rose,”

  Rose Tyler

  Rosenkranz, Karl

  Rowling, J.K.

  “The Runaway Bride,”

  Rutans

  Ryan, Richard

  Ryle, Gilbert

  Sally Sparrow

  Sarah Jane Adventures

  Sarah Jane Smith

  Sartre, Jean-Paul

  “The Satan Pit,”

  Sautoy, Marcus du

  Scaroth

  “School Reunion,”

  Schopenhauer, Arthur

  Scott, James C.

  Sea Devils

  “The Sea Devils,”

  “The Seeds of Death,”

  Second Doctor, see Troughton, Patrick

  “The Seeds of Doom,”

  Sellars, Wilfrid

  Sensorites

  Seventh Doctor, see McCoy, Sylvester

  “The Shakespeare Code,”

  Shakespeare, William

  Shelley, Percy B.

  Sheppard, Anne

  Sherlock Holmes

  Shindler, Nicola

  “Silence in the Library,”

  Silurians

  “Silver Nemesis,”

  Simm, John

  The Simpsons

  Singer, Peter

  Sixth Doctor, see Baker, Colin

  Skasis Paradigm

  Slitheen

  “Smith and Jones,”

  Smith, Matt (Eleventh Doctor)

  “Snakedance,”

  Socrates

  Solonians

  “The Sontaran Experiment,”

  “The Sontaran Stratagem,”

  Sontarans

  “The Sound of Drums,”

  “The Space Museum,”

  species concepts

  speciesism

  Star Trek

  Star-Whale

  Statten, Henry van

  “The Stolen Earth,”

  “The Sun Makers,”

  Susan

  Sutekh

  “Survival,”

  Sycorax

  T-Mat

  “The Talons of Weng-Chiang,”

  TARDIS

  Tegan

  Temmosus

  Tennant, David (Tenth Doctor)

  Tenth Doctor, see Tennant, David

  “The Tenth Planet,”

  “Terror of the Autons,”

  “Terror of the Zygons,”

  Thals

  Third Doctor, see Pertwee, Jon

  “The Three Doctors,”

  three-dimensional, object

  space

  time slice

  time, external

  loops

  meddler

  personal

  travel

  “Time and the Rani,”

  “Time Crash,”

  “Time-Flight,”

  “The Time Meddler,”

  “The Time Monster,”

  “The Time Warrior,”

  “Timelash,”

  Toclafane

  “The Tomb of the Cybermen,”

  Torchwood

  Troughton, Patrick (Second Doctor)

  Tulloch, John

  “Turn Left,”

  “The Twin Dilemma,”

  “The Two Doctors,”

  “The Ultimate Foe,”

  “Underworld,”

  “An Unearthly Child,”

  “The Unicorn and the Wasp,”

  “The Unquiet Dead,”

  utilitarianism

  “Utopia,”

  Valeyard

  Van Inwagen, Peter

  Vashta Nerada

  “Vengeance on Varos,”

  Vico, Giambattista

  “The Visitation,”

  Voltaire

  “Voyage of the Damned,”

  Walton, Kendall

  “The War Games,”

  “The War Machines,”

  Watcher, The

  “The Waters of Mars,”

  “The Web of Fear,”

  Weber, Max

  Weeping Angels

  Wells, H.G.

  “The Wheel in Space,”

  Whitaker, David

  Wiltshire, Adrian

  Wilfred Mott

  Williams, Bernard

  Wire, The

  Wolfe, Tom

  World War I

  World War II

  Wyndham, John

  Yana, Professor

  Zamyatin, Yevgeny

  Zeno of Elea

  Zoe Heriot

  Zygons

  1 William James, The Principles of Psychology, p. 330.

  2 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, p. 340.

  3 In Parfit’s example, the young man actually takes steps to frustrate that future self’s interests—in effect, treating his future self as a different person altogether. Reasons and Persons, p. 327.

  4 Essays on the Intellectual and Active Powers of Man, p. 397.

  5 Galen Strawson, “The Self,” p. 359.

  6 Robert Nozick, p. 37.

  7 Raymond Martin and John Barresi, “Introduction” in Personal Identity, p. 4.

  8 This chapter was made possible by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Danish Research Council for the Humanities.

  9 I think that this model of humans in time is forced on us by modern science, particularly Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity. Some philosophers disagree. For a good discussion of the issue, hunt down M.C. Rea, “Four Dimensionalism.”

  10 If you’re a true Doctor Who geek, you have cried “No! Not the timelash!” at this point. If you haven’t, do it now. (See also “No! Not the mind probe!”)

  11 .

  12 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Chapter XXVII.

  13 Essays on the Intellectual and Active Powers of Man, Volume 1, p. 397.

  14 Philosophical Explanations.

  15 Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons, pp. 199-201.

  16 “Survival and Identity.”

  17 How long does this take? Such things are hard to pin down. Different types of cells replace themselves at different rates, and brain cells are not replaced—once gone, they’re gone—but are maintained. All in all, however, over time, your body fully discards and replaces all of the material that makes it up.

  18 See Plato, Phaedo and René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy .

  19 Rita Carter, Mapping the Mind, pp. 25-26.

  20 See V.S. Ramachandran, Phantoms in the Brai
n, Chapter 9.

  21 This is the title of Wolfe’s article as it appears in Forbes ASAP (December 2nd, 1996).

  22 “Personal Identity,” in Personal Identity.

  23 “The Self and the Future.”

  24 For more on why the series followed this path, see James Chapman, Inside the TARDIS: The Worlds of Doctor Who.

  25 This theory is inspired by David Lewis, “Survival and Identity.”

  26 Chris Howarth and Steve Lyons, Doctor Who: The Completely Unofficial Encyclopedia, p. 11.

  27 I would like to thank seven-year-old Isaac Williams for this critical observation.

  28 I would also like to offer a huge thanks to Mark Trotman and Aled Williams for their help making sure the Doctor Who references were accurate. Any errors will be mine and not theirs.

  29 There are at least three examples of abnormal temporal communication in “Blink”: 1. The Doctor’s message to Sally written on the wall; 2. Kathy Nightingale’s letter to Sally; and 3. The Doctor’s DVD Easter egg. For simplicity I’m just looking at the Easter egg here.

  30 It is irrelevant why these famous philosophers have been given the chance to redesign the Cybermen. If it bothers you, assume the High Council of Gallifrey is somehow behind it. Or, if it floats your boat, the Meddling Monk, Omega, the White Guardian, a glowing yellow Rose, or a floating Tennant Doctor.

  31 Thomas Hobbes, a professional tutor, lived from 1588 to 1679. This means that as an eleven-year-old in 1599, he might have attended one of Shakepeare’s plays with David Tennant’s Doctor and Martha, only to be terrorized by the invasion of the Carrionites during the events of “The Shakespeare Code” (2007). It’s also possible that he later played cards with William Hartnell’s Doctor, Ben, and Polly in a Cornish pub during “The Smugglers” (1966). It’s even possible that in 1666, at age seventy-eight, he joined the angry mob chasing Peter Davison’s Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa, and Adric through the woods in “The Visitation” (1982).

  32 A view also held by Sutekh the Destroyer in “Pyramids of Mars” (1975).

  33 For a different interpretation, see Chapter 18 in this volume.

  34 John Stuart Mill lived from 1806 to 1873. If he’d been traveling in the north of England as a young man, he might have stepped on a mine in the forest and been turned into a tree during “The Mark of the Rani” (1985). In 1866, at the age of sixty, he might have dropped by to see Professor Maxtible socially, and so bumped into Patrick Troughton’s Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria during “The Evil of the Daleks” (1967). If he’d gone to visit Cardiff in 1869 at age sixty-three, he might have run screaming out of a theater, pursued by ghosts, Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor, and Rose during “The Unquiet Dead” (2005). If Mill had boarded the Mary Celeste in 1872 at the age of sixty-seven, he would have seen William Hartnell’s Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki run by in “The Chase” (1965), just before the ship is overrun by Daleks with the loss of all life still onboard. Lucky for him he didn’t get on.

 

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