The "Golden Compass" and Philosophy

An exploration of Philip Pullman's bestselling trilogy, "His Dark Materials". It looks at the many issues raised by the Dark Materials world, and by the controversies it has stirred up.

But Pullman's stories also explore many philosophical issues, such as the existence of the soul (the daemon creatures which accompany every human in Lyra's world) and the multiple nature of reality (with millions of universes, some of them having the same continents, cities, and languages as our own). The philosopher-authors wield their subtle knives to dissect such issues as the nature of truth (could a golden compass or alethiometer really work?), the puzzles of personal identity (can a person's soul or daemon have a mind of its own?), the death of God (which the heroine Lyra and her mysterious father struggle to bring about), the ethics of mutilation of children's bodies and personalities (the fiendish secret project of the Magisterium is its pursuit of the diabolical 'intercision' process), the ontology of fictional characters (is it the same Lyra who shows up in different media?), the ethics of preaching religious views in stories for children (pro-church in the case of C.S. Lewis and anti-church in the case of Pullman), and the parallel between scientific progress and personal learning (shown by Lyra's deepening understanding throughout the trilogy).