Explore the mind and world of the brilliant neurosurgeon-turned-Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Stephen Strange Essays from two-dozen philosophers illuminate how essential philosophical concepts, including existentialism, epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics, combine to make Doctor Strange one of the most complex characters in the Marvel Universe, and a welcome addition to the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture stable of superheroes.

Contributors: The Philosophers Supreme viii
Acknowledgments: By the Glorious Grandiloquence of Gratitude! Xiv
Introduction: Opening the Book of the Vishanti 1
Part I "You're Just Another Tiny, Momentary Speck within an Indifferent Universe" 3
1 Bargaining with Eternity and Numbering One's Days: Medicine, Nietzsche, and Doctor Strange 5
George A. Dunn
2 Death Gives Meaning to Life: Martin Heidegger Meets Stephen Strange 17
Sander H. Lee
3 "Time Will Tell How Much I Love You": A Nietzschean Übermensch's Issues with Love and Friendship 25
Skye C. Cleary
4 Existentialism, Nihilism, and the Meaning of Life for Doctor Strange 35
Paul DiGeorgio
Part II "Forget Everything That You Think You Know" 47
5 "Through an Orb Darkly": Doctor Strange and the Journey to Knowledge 49
Armond Boudreaux
6 Forbidden Knowledge and Strange Virtues: It's Not What You Know, It's How You Know It 60
Tuomas W. Manninen
7 Doctor Strange, Socratic Hero? 68
Chad William Timm
8 Are We All "Looking at the World Through a Keyhole"?: Knowledge, Ignorance, and Bias 78
Carina Pape
9 Stephen Strange vs. Ayn Rand: A Doesn't Always Equal A 88
Edwardo Pérez
Part III "Reality Is One of Many" 99
10 Astral Bodies and Cartesian Souls: Mind-Body Dualism in Doctor Strange 101
Dean A. Kowalski
11 Scientists, Metaphysicians, and Sorcerers Supreme 111
Sarah K. Donovan and Nicholas Richardson
12 "This Is Time": Setting Time in Doctor Strange by Henri Bergson's Clock 125
Corey Latta
Part IV "A Man Looking at the World Through a Keyhole" 137
13 A Strange Case of a Paradigm Shift 139
Brendan Shea
14 Doctor Strange, the Multiverse, and the Measurement Problem 151
Philipp Berghofer
15 The Strange World of Paradox: Science and Belief in Kamar-Taj 164
Matthew William Brake
Part V "It's Not About You" 175
16 The Otherworldly Burden of Being the Sorcerer Supreme 177
Mark D. White
17 The Ancient One and the Problem of Dirty Hands 191
Michael Lyons
18 They Also Serve Who Only Stand and Wong 197
Daniel P. Malloy
19 Doctor Strange, Master of the Medical and Martial Arts 207
Bruce Wright and E. Paul Zehr
Part VI "I've Come to Bargain" 217
20 Is Dormammu Evil?: St. Augustine and the Dark Dimension 219
Andrew T. Vink
21 Doctor Strange and Leo Tolstoy: Brothers in Nonviolence? 228
Konstantin Pavliouts
22 Doctor Strange, Moral Responsibility, and the God Question 238
Christopher P. Klofft
The Index of the All-Seeing Eye of Agamotto 250