Richard Greene - Dexter and Philosophy

Table of Contents

Popular Culture and Philosophy

Series Editor: George A. Reisch

VOLUME 1
Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about
Everything and Nothing (2000)

VOLUME 2
The Simpsons and Philosophy: The Doh!
of Homer (2001)

VOLUME 3
The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to
the Desert of the Real (2002)

VOLUME 4
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy:
Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale (2003)

VOLUME 5
The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy:
One Book to Rule Them All (2003)

VOLUME 9
Harry Potter and Philosophy:
If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts (2004)

VOLUME 12
Star Wars and Philosophy: More Powerful
than You Can Possibly Imagine (2005)

VOLUME 13
Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth,
Justice, and the Socratic Way (2005)

VOLUME 17
Bob Dylan and Philosophy: Its Alright
Ma (Im Only Thinking) (2006)

VOLUME 18
Harley-Davidson and Philosophy:
Full-Throttle Aristotle (2006)

VOLUME 19
Monty Python and Philosophy: Nudge
Nudge, Think Think! (2006)

VOLUME 24
Bullshit and Philosophy: Guaranteed to
Get Perfect Results Every Time (2006)

VOLUME 25
The Beatles and Philosophy: Nothing You
Can Think that Cant Be Thunk (2006)

VOLUME 26
South Park and Philosophy: Bigger,
Longer, and More Penetrating (2007)
Edited by Richard Hanley

VOLUME 28
The Grateful Dead and Philosophy:
Getting High Minded about Love and
Haight (2007) Edited by Steven Gimbel

VOLUME 29
Quentin Tarantino and Philosophy:
How to Philosophize with a Pair of Pliers
and a Blowtorch (2007) Edited by
Richard Greene and K. Silem Mohammad

VOLUME 30
Pink Floyd and Philosophy: Careful with
that Axiom, Eugene! (2007) Edited by
George A. Reisch

VOLUME 31
Johnny Cash and Philosophy: The
Burning Ring of Truth (2008) Edited by
John Huss and David Werther

VOLUME 32
Bruce Springsteen and Philosophy:
Darkness on the Edge of Truth (2008)
Edited by Randall E. Auxier and Doug
Anderson

VOLUME 33
Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy:
Mission Accomplished or Mission Frakked
Up? (2008) Edited by Josef Steiff and
Tristan D. Tamplin

VOLUME 34
iPod and Philosophy: iCon of an ePoch
(2008) Edited by D.E. Wittkower

VOLUME 35
Star Trek and Philosophy: The Wrath of
Kant (2008) Edited by Jason T. Eberl and
Kevin S. Decker

VOLUME 36
The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy:
I Link Therefore I Am (2008) Edited by
Luke Cuddy

VOLUME 37
The Wizard of Oz and Philosophy:
Wicked Wisdom of the West (2008) Edited
by Randall E. Auxier and Phillip S. Seng

VOLUME 38
Radiohead and Philosophy: Fitter Happier
More Deductive (2009) Edited by Brandon
W. Forbes and George A. Reisch

VOLUME 39
Jimmy Buffett and Philosophy: The
Porpoise Driven Life (2009) Edited by
Erin McKenna and Scott L. Pratt

VOLUME 40
Transformers and Philosophy (2009)
Edited by John Shook and Liz
Stillwaggon Swan

VOLUME 41
Stephen Colbert and Philosophy:
I Am Philosophy (And So Can You!)
(2009) Edited by Aaron Allen Schiller

VOLUME 42
Supervillains and Philosophy: Sometimes,
Evil Is Its Own Reward (2009) Edited by
Ben Dyer

VOLUME 43
The Golden Compass and Philosophy: God
Bites the Dust (2009) Edited by Richard
Greene and Rachel Robison

VOLUME 44
Led Zeppelin and Philosophy: All Will Be
Revealed (2009) Edited by Scott Calef

VOLUME 45
World of Warcraft and Philosophy: Wrath
of the Philosopher King (2009) Edited by
Luke Cuddy and John Nordlinger

Volume 46
Mr. Monk and Philosophy: The Curious
Case of the Defective Detective (2010)
Edited by D.E. Wittkower

Volume 47
Anime and Philosophy: Wide Eyed
Wonder (2010) Edited by Josef Steiff and
Tristan D. Tamplin

VOLUME 48
The Red Sox and Philosophy: Green
Monster Meditations (2010) Edited by
Michael Macomber

VOLUME 49
Zombies, Vampires, and Philosophy : New
Life for the Undead (2010) Edited by
Richard Greene and K. Silem Mohammad

VOLUME 50
Facebook and Philosophy: Whats on Your
Mind? (2010) Edited by D.E. Wittkower

VOLUME 51
Soccer and Philosophy: Beautiful
Thoughts on the Beautiful Game (2010)
Edited by Ted Richards

VOLUME 52
Manga and Philosophy: Fullmetal
Metaphysician (2010) Edited by Josef
Steiff and Adam Barkman

VOLUME 53
Martial Arts and Philosophy: Beating
and Nothingness (2010) Edited by
Graham Priest and Damon Young

VOLUME 54
The Onion and Philosophy: Fake News
Story True, Alleges Indignant Area
Professor (2010) Edited by Sharon M. Kaye

VOLUME 55
Doctor Who and Philosophy: Bigger on
the Inside (2010) Edited by Courtland
Lewis and Paula Smithka

VOLUME 56
Dune and Philosophy: Weirding Way of
the Mentat (2011) Edited by Jeffery
Nicholas

VOLUME 57
Rush and Philosophy: Heart and Mind
United (2011) Edited by Jim Berti and
Durrell Bowman

VOLUME 58
Dexter and Philosophy: Mind ove Spatter
(2011) Edited by Richard Greene, George
A. Reisch, and Rachel Robison

IN PREPARATION:

Halo and Philosophy (2011) Edited by Luke Cuddy

Spongebob Squarepants and Philosophy (2011) Edited by Joseph Foy

Sherlock Holmes and Philosophy (2011) Edited by Josef Steiff

Philip K. Dick and Philosophy (2011) Edited by D.E. Wittkower

Inception and Philosophy (2011) Edited by Thorsten Botz-Bornstein

Breaking Bad and Philosophy (2012) Edited by David R. Koepsell

Curb Your Enthusiasm and Philosophy (2012) Edited by Mark Ralkowski

The Rolling Stones and Philosophy (2012) Edited by Luke Dick and Gearge A. Reisch

For full details of all Popular Culture and Philosophy books, visit www.opencourtbooks.com .

For Brandy Burfield

Acknowledgments

W orking on this project has been a pleasure, in no small part because of the many fine folks who have assisted us along the way. In particular a debt of gratitude is owed to David Ramsay Steele at Open Court, the contributors to this volume, and our respective academic departments at UMass Amherst, Northwestern University, and Weber State University. Finally, wed like to thank those family members, students, friends, and colleagues with whom weve had fruitful and rewarding conversations on various aspects of all things Dexter as they relate to philosophical themes.

Know Thyself?

GEORGE A. REISCH

T he statistics are one in twenty-five. That means theres a good chance that there was one among my elementary school classmates, two in my high-school student council (which explains a lot!) and about eighty at the last meeting of the American Philosophical Association. Yikes.

Sociopaths are everywhereat least according to psychologist Martha Stout who, in her book The Sociopath Next Door , formulates the one-in-twenty-five (four percent) statistic. The sociopaths Stout has dedicated her life to studying have three defining traits: they are incapable of feeling ordinary human emotions, like compassion, empathy, and love; they have no moral conscience and simply dont feel shame or guilt like the rest of us; and they easily hide this from those of us around them.

How do they do it? In large part, they dont. We do it. We are so confident that we know what other people are about, we do the work for them. As Stout puts it, since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless. When youre one of the one-in-twenty-five, living, working, and bowling with your friends, the icewater in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience, that they seldom even guess at your condition. (p. 1). The only good news is that most of these sociopaths are not vicious serial killers.