While it fairly takes the brunt of many jokes, Pirates of the Caribbean is an incredibly well-crafted and provocative movie trilogy. The story is layered, the characters are dynamic and the themes have resonance throughout philosophical history.
René Descartes revolutionized philosophy in the mid 17th Century with his Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. His ideas continue to echo in today’s modern art schemes, especially in Pirates of the Caribbean. Not only does the film trilogy embrace Descartes’ soul-body divide, but it also supports his view of error and offers a Cartesian critique of how we view the self.
(Note: in my arguments, I will consider only the first three movies. The fourth strays from the original plot, lacks the intellectual wit of the others and is generally empty of philosophical implications.)
1. Soul-Body Divide
Descartes’ most provocative claim is that our minds, and therefore selves, are utterly distinct from our bodies. In his Meditations, he claims “it is certain that I am really distinct from my body, and can exist without it.”
Pirates of the Caribbean wholeheartedly embraces this distinction. The villains (Barbossa’s cursed crew and Davy Jones’ half-dead half-alive corps) operate distinct from their bodies. Barbossa’s crew can’t sense anything – their bodies don’t function – but they nonetheless exist. Davy Jones’s crews' bodies steadily disintegrate, but the souls continue to remain. Even Jack Sparrow (Excuse me… Captain! Jack Sparrow) continues to exist in Davy Jones's Locker after his body is eaten by the Kraken. The movies endorse a soul-body divide.
2. Present with our Bodies
Descartes clarifies the body-soul dichotomy in saying, “I am present not merely to my body in the way a sailor is present to a ship, but that I am most tightly joined and, so to speak, comingled with it.”
The imagery and parallel with “Bootstrap” Bill Turner is staggering. On The Flying Dutchman Bootstrap Bill begins as a mere sailor, but over time becomes a part of the ship itself. Our minds our distinct, but are utterly trapped in our bodies much like Bill Turner’s entrapment on the ship.
3. Intellection vs. Imagination
Descartes carries a general distrust of imagination, preferring instead to rely only on basic, sound intellectual knowledge for truth. Imagination destroys our reality. In Davy Jones’s Locker, Captain Jack Sparrow is trapped in his imagination. He populates his ship with fantasies and believes he is going somewhere while actually going nowhere. His reality is literally shipwrecked.
But Descartes offers hope of escaping this turmoil; he says that “the mind, when it understands, in a sense turns toward itself and looks at … the ideas that are in it.” To escape ‘The Locker,’ Jack turns to his mind. Right before realizing how to escape, Jack hosts a conversation with the voices in his head – distinctly different than his previous external fantasies. In turning to his mind, he cracks the code and escapes his imagination.
4. Embracing Error
“You have to be lost to find a place that can't be found.” This subtle quote from Barbossa summarizes much of Descartes’ worldview. Sometimes, we must be in error in order to know what is good. Descartes calls this the “infirmity of our nature.” Our mistakes show us who we truly are and what we truly want.
After all, it is only after Jack abandons his crew-mates when the Kraken attacks that his compass, which points to what he most wants and has been broken for the whole movie, begins working again. He returns to save his mates and fulfills Elizabeth’s inevitable prediction that he would day do choose to do the right, moral thing.
Pirates of the Caribbean is an imaginary story, but it asks us to consider turning away from our own imaginations. It begs us to "turn toward ourselves" and consider what imaginations we put into the “Locker” in our very soul. The movie compels us to see our flaws but offers hope that these mistakes will transform us as they did Captain Jack.
In sum, the movie’s wit is impeccable, its plot unique and its themes acute. So next time you watch the movie, soak in the brilliance and “drink up, me hearties yoho!”
