Ultimate Lost and Philosophy

Introduction: Lost and F.O.U.N.D. 1

Part One F is for Fortune

1 Lost in Lost’s Times 9
Richard Davies

2 Imaginary Peanut Butter: The Puzzles of Time Travel in Lost 32
William J. Devlin

3 It Doesn’t Matter What We Do: From Metaphysics to Ethics in Lost’s Time Travel 47
Jeremy Pierce

4 If Sawyer Weren’t a Con Man, Then He Would Have Been a Cop: Counterfactual Reasoning in the Last Season of Lost 63
Deborah R. Barnbaum

Part Two O is for Origin

5 Lost in Different Circumstances: What Would You Do? 75
Charles Taliaferro and Dan Kastrul

6 “Don’t Mistake Coincidence for Fate”: Lost Theories and Coincidence 91
Briony Addey

7 Lost and the Question of Life after Birth 107
Jeremy Barris

8 See You in Another Life, Brother: Bad Faith and Authenticity in Three Lost Souls 120
Sander Lee

Part Three U is for Unity

9 Lost’s State of Nature 145
Richard Davies

10 Friends and Enemies in the State of Nature: The Absence of Hobbes and the Presence of Schmitt 164
Peter S. Fosl

11 Ideology and Otherness in Lost: “Stuck in a Bloody Snow Globe” 187
Karen Gaffney

Part Four N is for Necessity

12 Escaping the Island of Ethical Subjectivism: Don’t Let Ben Bring You Back 207
George Wrisley

13 Lost Together: Fathers, Sons, and Moral Obligations 220
Michael W. Austin

14 Should We Condemn Michael? 233
Becky Vartabedian

15 The Ethics of Objectification and the Search for Redemption in Lost 241
Patricia Brace and Rob Arp

Part Five D is for Destiny

16 The New Narnia: Myth and Redemption on the Island of Second Chances 253
Brett Chandler Patterson

17 I Once Was Lost: Aquinas on Finding Goodness and Truth 280
Daniel B. Gallagher

18 The Tao of John Locke 300
Shai Biderman and William J. Devlin

19 Lost Metaphysics: Keeping the Needle on the Record 312
Donavan S. Muir

Appendix: Who Are Locke, Hume, and Rousseau? The Losties’ Guide to Philosophers 321
Scott F. Parkers

Contributors: Jacob’s Candidates 341

Index: Oceanic Flight 815 Manifest 347