Abstract

The Doctor Strange offers a unique opportunity to explore the question: how can people say that something exists if it can't be detected in the physical world. As a physician and a man of science, Doctor Stephen Strange has a strictly materialist worldview. Before Kamar‐Taj, Strange sought his cure through the only means he could understand: medicine and science. Medicine and science always push the boundaries of what people can know about the human body and the universe, constantly discovering new methods and drugs through research and experimentation. The Doctor Strange provides an opportunity to consider the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard writes that “it is also the ultimate passion of the understanding to will the collision” with the unknown. Kierkegaard describes two different kinds of teachers in the Philosophical Fragments: Socratic teacher and the god as teacher. The Ancient One seems to be a combination of the Socratic teacher and the god as teacher.