Lost: The Chess Game by Michael Barber

A Philosophical Thought Experiment

Part I

Overview

I believe Lost is a story detailing a philosophical Treatise and Thought Experiment illustrated as a game of philosophy differences between two philosopher’s named Jacob and Juan (aka Mib). These two central core philosophies are generally considered the basis of all core beliefs of experience and knowledge. These basic philosophies form the foundation of human thought and thus cross all subjects. However, they especially cross the subjects of science (especially physics), psychology, religion, ethics, and sociology.

Jacob, the Protagonist, and Juan, the antagonist each represent one of two central core philosophical concepts against his opponent and the opposing philosophical difference. With each philosophical difference, the corresponding philosopher has control over those aspects that represent his philosophy. By origin, I mean a historical context of the philosophers who helped to originate that philosophy and the disciplines to which they were attempting to explain a cosmology for.

The object of the game is to be right. To be right, means that a particular philosophy is the controlling philosophy...the correct philosophy controlling human kind. This philosophical
debate has been going on for centuries within our own world and within the world of the
island. However, on the island there is a fictional twist. This basic philosophical question of what is the core philosophy that shapes mankind is played as a game on a Lost
survivor control group, who represent players in the chess game. This control group of chess pieces are the manipulative group from which the games conclusion will be drawn from. Ultimately, this control group from which the game is played can be extrapolated to mankind as a whole. However, I believe this will be left as the ultimate unanswered question at the conclusion of the show.

How the game is played is simple. Con, manipulate or otherwise influence a control group to embrace your philosophy. The tools at your disposal are any of the specific philosopher doctrines or influences relating directly to your philosophers and those philosophers to which they represent in a historical context and as an actual fictional manifestation of the philosophy. Each philosopher maintains tools and even individuals of manipulation at his disposal. The control group of Lost survivors arrives on the island and each must be "conned" onto doing the work of one or the other thus "proving" their philosophy. The philosopher whose philosophy is proven wins the game and thus establishes his point of what the controlling philosophy of mankind is.

The rules are simple. You may trick or con -- the fate or the destiny (depending on which you believe is correct) using your philosophical cosmology and those manipulations that are
manifestations of your philosophy. However, you may not short circuit game play. So, for
example, you cannot simply kill any of the opposing philosophical manipulators
with your chief operators (the others, DI, Jacob, Smokie). You also must respect Free
Will. So you can influence fate and destiny but final decisions that are philosophically
"free will" decision must be respected and allowed to happen on their own. That leaves Free Will to ultimately determine which philosophy and who the winner of the game is.

Jacob: The empiricist and his domain

John Locke, the philosopher, considered to be one of the first to formulate empiricism, is based on the assumption that knowledge of something arises from an experience of it. John
Locke (the philosopher) was one of the first philosophers who gave scientists a purpose or
a fundamental basis from which to operate on. So as a result, Jacob who represents the
philosophy of Empiricism, also, therefore, inherits all of the philosophers of mankind’s
historical context that were Empiricists. John Locke (the philosopher) being the main
Empiricist. Empiricists are inherently the "first" scientists. They believe that
observation is by direct observation of "objects". So intrinsic to this, is sensory
perception observation and measurements, empiricist traits -- so this is how Jacob's trait
of his love of Nature for example originates.

In addition, Science, the advanced form of empiricism, is also how the DI operates and as
we saw with the maternity experimentation and how the others operate. The philosopher David
Hume was highly active in the development of the scientific method. Jacob inherently has
the traits of science as these are empiricist traits of the philosophy and the philosophers
who studied these subjects. As a result, Jacob has control over time and space aspects. Healing and time are intimately connected. Jacob also has the ability to heal; he inherits
this trait from the historical philosopher Hippocrates and Aristotle. The term empirical
(from which empiricism derives from), relates to these early Greek philosophers and
practitioners of medicine from which all modern day medicine and the Hippocratic oath
originates.

John Locke also originated the concept of Tabula Rasa. This essentially means that we are originally "blank slates" and everything we learn is from experience. This is why Jacob,
on the beach, believes that given enough time, he can generate the correct "experiences" to
formulate the correct response out of individuals. He just needs to put them in contact with the right objects or the right sensory experiences to shape them. This is also the origin of his belief emphasizing control over children. Children have had "few experiences" so their slate is the most blank. And through selective experiences, he can guide or nurture children and mold them into what he wants.

Besides the control over space and time, Jacob also inherently controls objects. This is
because sensory perception is a direct philosophical premise of knowledge and experience.

He, therefore, can use objects within our game to influence individuals. Objects like the
candy bar to cause our spinal surgeon, Jack to go back in time. Or the ability to make an
old VW van, out of service, out of gas, and subjected to the harsh temperate and humid
climate of an island for 30 years suddenly run again. Or to make food (objects) suddenly
appear out of no-where. In fact, virtually all of the object manipulation we have seen is the result of Jacobs ability to harness the power of the island by virtual of his philosophy.

Juan (MiB): The rationalist and his domain.

Descartes (The father of modern philosophy) and (the father of Analytical Geometry) was one of the first rationalists. He called into question whether we were even "real" or "alive". He rejected corporeal substance of matter and came up with the famous expression, "I think therefore I am". This concept of doubt, called Cogito ergo sum, stresses the mind clear all things and build up only what it knows must be true. His idea was to reject everything first in order to determine what was correct only be what was certain. Since his senses and sensory perception (popularized by empiricist) was not always correct, they could not be trusted. Through this process all perception is disregarded and only "deduction" and "thinking" are trusted as the basis of all knowing. Descartes even said that we cannot distinguish between the dream state and the awake state. Both were sensorial processes. However, we must never trust dreams because they were not thinking and could not provide knowle! dge. He even hypothesized that our entire existence might be made up, the result of a demon tricking us to believe we were alive.

If you have seen the movie Matrix then this may as well have been written by Descartes. It encapsulates this philosophy well, as the dream state simulates reality and our senses being tricked. Descartes also believed in the duality of human as body and souls. The pineal gland was thought to be the central organ with respect to where the mind and soul interact. This was theorized because animals didn't have pineal glands.

This philosophy, as opposed to Jacobs empiricism, stresses logic, thinking, mathematics, and faith. Furthermore, it emphasizes the rejection of the corporeal existence in favor of the soul
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind-body_problem). Plato also approached this rationalist duality by explaining the soul as immortal because it was the source of ideas and the soul did not exist in time and space like the body did. The soul was the source of abstract reality was as the body was empty only capable of seeing shadows.

The philosophy Leibniz proposed the concept of Monads. It is these Monads that I believe are represented on Lost as Smokie. Monads are the metaphysical equivalent of atoms in the physical world. I believe that Smokie is the metaphysical thought conceptualization of a Monad body. Mondads possess no material or spatial character. Monads are eternal, indecomposable and each individual monad particle interacts independent on its own free will. These monads are theorized to solve the mind-body problem by incorporating a single fundamental concept of both physical and thought encapsulation.

Juan controls the non-physical souls. He manipulates through the dream state and
non-corporeal souls and though the use of Monads. He uses these tactics especially to
trick the senses and the sensory perception experience as this is the empirical process.

(to be continued)