Health Economics and Financing

What are the metaphysics of time travel?
How can Hurley exist in two places at the same time?
What does it mean for something to be possibly true in the flash-sideways universe?
Does Jack have a moral obligation to his father?
What is the Tao of John Locke?

Dude. So there’s, like, this island? And a bunch of us were on Oceanic flight 815 and we crashed on it. I kinda thought it was my fault, because of those numbers. I thought they were bad luck. We’ve seen the craziest things here, like a polar bear and a Smoke Monster, and we traveled through time back to the 1970s. And we met the Dharma dudes. Arzt even blew himself up. For a long time, I thought I was crazy. But now, I think it might have been destiny. The island’s made me question a lot of things. Like, why is it that Locke and Desmond have the same names as real philosophers? Why do so many of us have trouble with our dads? Did Jack have a choice in becoming our leader? And what’s up with Vincent? I mean, he’s gotta be more than just a dog, right? I dunno. We’ve all felt pretty lost. I just hope we can trust Jacob, otherwise … whoa.

With its sixth-season series finale, Lost did more than end its run as one of the most talked-about TV programs of all time; it left in its wake a complex labyrinth of philosophical questions and issues to be explored. Revenge, redemption, love, loss, identity, morality—all of Lost’s key themes are examined in this fully updated guide, which reveals the deeper meaning behind every twist and turn in this historic, one-of-a-kind show.

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