LOST Philosophy

Tomorrow is the night. A new episode of LOST.

I have a few questions and observations going into it . . .

A couple of weeks ago we learned that one of the freighter-four newcomers to the island is named Charlotte Staples Lewis. I’m sure for most of us there was an immediate connection to C.S. Lewis (Clive Staple Lewis). I chuckled to myself thinking, “that is very intentional.”

The other obvious connection for me is in the character John Locke. The famous philosopher John Locke proposed the epistemological thesis Tabula Rasa (translated: scraped tablet/clean slate; btw Tabula Rasa is also a computer video game). Locke is also known as the philosopher of freedom. Tabula Rasa was also the name of one of the first season episodes.

In college, I was very interested in my study of Jean-Jacques Rousseau—the father of Romanticism. It was my favorite part of Ed Psych. Naturally, my mind went there right away when introduced to the character of Danielle Rousseau.


A latecomer to LOST (I watched 70+ hours of LOST since January 3rd to get up to speed), I realize many of you may already know the philosopher/thinker-character name association. (Although even if you were dedicated the last three years, CS Lewis is a new revelation to all of us).

I am pretty excited to find this all out. It has put me on a new path of discovery and a new obsession for tracking down LOST clues and trivia.

Thinking that these two were not the only people with namesakes, I did a little research. Yes, my discovery is not a new one. Now that I have read about it, I encourage you to do some Google searches and read other people’s homework on the philosopher/thinker connection.

Check out these other character : : : philosopher/thinker connections.

Desmond Hume : : : David Hume

Juliet Burke : : : Edmund Burke (fun fact—Juliet’s ex-husband is named Edmund)

Mikhail Bakunin : : : Mikhail Bakunin

Daniel Faraday : : : Michael Faraday

Richard Alpert : : : Dr. Richard Alpert (Ram Dass)

Can you think of any others?