You, Spinoza?

[Kagan]

In Where No Man Has Gone Before...

When Mitchell claims to have read the "long-haired hippy stuff" that Kirk likes, Kirk is amazed. Mitchell goes on to call Spinoza, "simple". Although Star Trek's Spinoza could be a 21st or early 22nd century philosopher, Baruch Spinoza was a 17th century philosopher whose writings were banned by the Vatican.

What is even more interesting is the fact that Spinoza believed that good and evil were relative concepts. I find this interesting because as Where No Man Has Gone Before develops Mitchell increasingly applies Spinozan ethics as he becomes increasingly powerful. In the end, Kirk himself chooses the Spinozan path as he kills his friend Gary Mitchell...a task he has struggled with during the episode.

 

[IrritatingGameOfChess]

Yes, that was a nice subtle subtext to the episode... A good example of literate screenwriting from Samuel Peebles. It shows the production team's intent to make thought provoking television, even with the mandate from the network that the second pilot be "less cerebral" than "The Cage."

 

[miraclefan]

Yes, that was a nice subtle subtext to the episode... A good example of literate screenwriting from Samuel Peebles. It shows the production team's intent to make thought provoking television, even with the mandate from the network that the second pilot be "less cerebral" than "The Cage."

A great example of brilliant wrighting is makeing something ''both'' cerebral and exciteing! Episodes like this one, prove it can be done! Let's hope J.J. & his team can do it too!

 

[IrritatingGameOfChess]

Yes, that was a nice subtle subtext to the episode... A good example of literate screenwriting from Samuel Peebles. It shows the production team's intent to make thought provoking television, even with the mandate from the network that the second pilot be "less cerebral" than "The Cage."

A great example of brilliant wrighting is makeing something ''both'' cerebral and exciteing! Episodes like this one, prove it can be done! Let's hope J.J. & his team can do it too!

Yes, the two aren't mutually exclusive! Let's hope there is that mix in the film!

 

[M'Sharak]

In Where No Man Has Gone Before...

When Mitchell claims to have read the "long-haired hippy stuff" that Kirk likes...

Minor nitpick: the "longhair" there refers not to hippies, but to classical scholars and philosophers, from the fact that many men of arts and letters during the Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment (including Spinoza) wore their hair long or wore wigs styled as long hair would be. Music of the Baroque and Classical periods is also sometimes called "longhair music".

 

[Praetor]

That's cool, I never picked up on that.

 

[Kagan]

In Where No Man Has Gone Before...

When Mitchell claims to have read the "long-haired hippy stuff" that Kirk likes...

Minor nitpick: the "longhair" there refers not to hippies, but to classical scholars and philosophers, from the fact that many men of arts and letters during the Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment (including Spinoza) wore their hair long or wore wigs styled as long hair would be. Music of the Baroque and Classical periods is also sometimes called "longhair music".

That's cool, I never picked up on that.

Thanks, M'Sharak...I hadn't picked up on that either.

 

[Iowagirl]

Thanks Kagan, that's an interesting observation. I've always loved the literay references on TOS. The Shakespeare titles and hints throughout the series, the Shelley reference in "Who mourns for Adonais", Milton in "Space Seed", etc. TOS really was about wonderful characters, great storytelling, returning to mankind's cultural roots and combining them with a positive vision of the future, but also with action, and fun. Best of all worlds!

 

[Doug Otte]

Yes, thanks for the interesting post, Kagan.

BTW, and this is a tangent, I think the term "long-hair" was used to describe classical (all program music, not just the Classical period) music up through the first half of the 20th Century, when many celebrity conductors still wore their hair longish. I can't remember where, but I heard it in some dialogue in a 1940s' era movie.

Doug

 

[WendellM]

Good point, Kagan. I remember reading Star Trek Speaks and thinking that many of the TOS quotes in it wouldn't be out of place in a philosophy class. Maybe one day there'll be The Philosophy of Star Trek linking "Spectre of the Gun" to Descartes, "Where No Mas Has Gone Before" to Spinoza, "Whom Gods Destroy" to Nietzsche, etc.

Oh my Mitchell! I just checked Amazon, and there already exists a book, Star Trek and Philosophy: The Wrath of Kant...

Review
"Humorously subtitled 'The Wrath of Kant, ' this book examines the relationship between Star Trek and various schools of philosophy, and enlists the help of 21 professional philosophers to show how the theories of philosophers such as Wittgenstein and Nietzsche made their way into the scripts of a network television show."
--Annotation (c)2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR
​

Geez... it's getting so you can't even joke for reality already catching up!

 

[Dave Scarpa]

JJ's trek being Cerebral or literal is something you should not fear. That's not the audience they are going after.

 

[JustKate]

Yes, thanks for the interesting post, Kagan.

BTW, and this is a tangent, I think the term "long-hair" was used to describe classical (all program music, not just the Classical period) music up through the first half of the 20th Century, when many celebrity conductors still wore their hair longish. I can't remember where, but I heard it in some dialogue in a 1940s' era movie.

The term was still used a bit when I was a kid in the 1960s (and thus when TOS was being written), and it was definitely going strong in the 1950s because I've read and heard lots of references. I expect it was when long hair came into fashion in the late 1960s that it began to lose its original meaning.

 

[Praetor]

^That would make sense.