Dexter and Philosophy

by Greene, Richard; Reisch, George A. ; Robison, Rachel

  The Mind Thinking about Its Sense of Duty

  What exactly does it mean to be a deontologist? Deontologists don’t think that the consequences of an action are primarily what determine whether or not the action is moral. Immanuel Kant, who many consider to be the father of deontological ethics, pioneered the idea that the results of an action alone do not determine its moral rightness. He even went so far as to argue that certain actions, such as lying, are categorically wrong, even if they save somebody’s life. To say Dexter is a deontologist is to say that Dexter is not guided mostly by considerations regarding the consequences of his actions, but that he feels he has a moral duty to rid the world of the people he kills.

  In order to classify Dexter as a true deontologist, his moral code should be the product of moral reasoning. Psychologically speaking, Dexter must be primarily motivated by a sense of moral duty over anything else. There’s no doubt that Dexter abides by a code, initially Harry’s Code and eventually his own. The question is whether or not this Code is the product of moral considerations or whether there is something else that actually guides him, and his morality is placed on top of that underlying foundation.

  Philosophy and psychology are related. Long before today’s neurosciences, philosophers like Thomas Hobbes, Friedrich Nietzsche, and David Hume questioned how and why people make their moral judgments. They addressed questions about human cognition, motivation, and the course of human psychological development. More modern philosophers like Walter Davis, Ernest Becker, and William Campbell use psychological analysis to analyze why people believe in religion or how people view their own identities. Recently, this relationship has taken a turn. Psychological research suggests that moral judgments, like Dexter’s choice of victim, may not in fact be the product of actual moral reasoning. We may make these judgments and act upon them for unconscious reasons, reasons we may not even have access to.51 When it comes to deontological judgments specifically, there is evidence to suggest that they “tend to be driven by emotional responses and that deontological philosophy, rather than being grounded in moral reasoning is to a large extent an exercise in moral rationalization” (p. 360). A rationalization is a reason we come up with, to explain or justify something we were going to do anyway, for quite a different reason.

  Donald Davidson explains that “a desire and a belief of the right sort may explain an action, but not necessarily. A man might have good reasons for killing his father, and he might do it, and yet the reasons not be his reasons for doing it.”52 In some cases, a sense of moral duty may not be the product of actual moral reasoning. Instead, people may make judgments about what to do based upon intuitions and institute moral codes after the fact to rationalize their behavior.53 This is what Dexter does. The Code Dexter follows is instituted as a suitable justification for his killings. But these killings serve deeper emotional needs for Dexter, and his morals are instituted, largely by Harry, as post hoc rationalizations. He has a natural desire or intuition to kill, and Harry’s Code is constructed to justify and guide Dexter.

  Dexter Doing His Duty Dutifully?

  I admit that there is some evidence to suggest that Dexter is a deontologist. The best evidence is his strict adherence, at least initially, to Harry’s Code. Before he has a family, Dexter operates stringently under this Code. Every aspect of every kill, from victim selection to body disposal, is controlled by it. He chooses to kill other killers, particularly those who manage to escape the Miami legal system with minimal or no consequences. He follows a precise and exact procedure in each of his kills and makes sure to gather evidence to confirm his victims’ guilt. He was taught all of this by Harry, and it would seem as if Harry’s Code is the sense of duty that drives Dexter to choose his victims.

  Dexter’s relationship with Miguel Prado seems to be further evidence that Dexter kills other killers because he feels he has a moral duty to do so. Upon learning who Dexter truly is, Miguel wants Dexter to help kill his chief legal rival, Ellen Wolf. Dexter refuses to assist in Wolf’s murder, arguing that she doesn’t deserve to die—she’s not a killer. Dexter doesn’t provide other reasons for his refusal to assist Prado, just that killing Wolf wouldn’t be the right thing to do. This indicates that Dexter does have a sense of moral duty.

  Dexter’s remorse for killing Miguel’s brother, Oscar, also indicates that Dexter is operating according to deotological considerations. His remorse grows after he discovers that Oscar worked with disadvantaged youth and had never truly harmed anyone. Oscar is the first killing Dexter carries out outside of Harry’s Code. The important thing is that Dexter frames his remorse in terms of violating the Code. He does not necessarily express regret for the consequences of his actions, but rather for going against the code he operates under.

  Dexter’s impressions of the Skinner, a chief antagonist in Season 3, also demonstrate that Dexter does have some understanding of right and wrong. He finds the Skinner to be a deplorable person, a sick individual. Dexter almost feels some degree of remorse for the Skinner’s victims and feels that the Skinner is being unfair. These opinions demonstrate that Dexter has some understanding of a distinction between a right killing and a wrong killing, potentially believing that his killings are right because he is carrying out a moral duty.

  The Mind Serves the Heart

  Dexter definitely has a code that he follows. The code begins as Harry’s invention, and eventually evolves into Dexter’s own. The code he follows, however, has a primarily emotional foundation.

  Dexter’s instinct to kill exists prior to any moral principles he has. Harry’s Code is instituted after Harry discovers that Dexter has a propensity toward killing. In his teenage years, Dexter kills animals and buries their bodies. He tells his father that he desires to do this often. Recognizing Dexter’s natural desire to kill, Harry decides to train his son to channel that desire toward what Harry believes to be a greater good. If Dexter’s moral compass is truly what guides his syringe, then this sense of morality had to have been present prior to Dexter’s desire to kill, or the two had to have appeared and evolved simultaneously. Dexter did not decide the world was full of bad people and then decide he had a duty to kill these bad people, to ensure they got what they deserved. Rather, he already had a desire to kill, and his father directed him with a “may as well use this to kill bad people” type of instruction.

  Dexter’s brother, Rudy, is clear evidence that Dexter’s deontological drive is instituted as a suitable justification for killings he would carry out anyway. Rudy shares Dexter’s life experiences, the exception being that Rudy was not raised by Harry after their mother’s murder. He witnesses the same horrific incident, sits in the same pool of blood, and develops the same dark desire to take human life. However, without Harry to guide him, Rudy develops a different justification to legitimate his killings. Rudy kills in an effort to find his brother, Dexter. This is the imperative that guides Rudy’s killer instincts, the same instincts that are present within Dexter. The two brothers have the same desire to kill, but Dexter has learned to operate under a code through Harry’s instruction. This demonstrates that there’s an emotional foundation underlying Dexter’s deontology.

  Dexter finally sheds Harry’s Code when he discovers the truth about who Harry was and who his own mother was. Dexter begins his own family and begins to feel emotions he has never felt before. At this point, Dexter’s conflict with the voice of Harry reaches a pinnacle, and Dexter ends up rejecting Harry’s ways and developing his own. He learns to accept his Dark Passenger and reconcile it with his new family. Although he finds it very difficult at first, Dexter does manage to placate both his Dark Passenger and the desire to have a family. The important thing, though, is that all these desires, after rejecting Harry’s Code, are emotional desires that Dexter seeks to satisfy. His actions are not principally guided by a sense of moral duty, but by his own needs and desires that he wants to serve.

  The people Dexter identifies with the most show that his emotions are what truly con
trol him. Dexter’s connection with Trinity, for example, shows that he is seeking some emotional satisfaction. Trinity clearly doesn’t have a moral code guiding him. He seeks to recreate three traumatic deaths from his earlier life, and he travels the country fulfilling that emotional desire. Yet, Dexter associates with Trinity and admires him initially. He begins observing Trinity, seeking to learn how to improve his own craft. Dexter’s interactions with Trinity are not motivated by considerations of a moral duty involved in his killings.

  Dexter also relates to Miguel more on an emotional level than a moral one. After Miguel kills Ellen Wolf, Dexter scolds Miguel for the murder and the way in which it was carried out. Miguel initially responds by arguing that Dexter is too restrained, that society is in a terrible condition and it’s up to them to fix it. Once Dexter begins to walk away, however, Miguel quickly switches to an emotional justification, telling Dexter that he feels the same darkness inside himself, and he cannot control it. At this point, Dexter becomes slightly more accepting of Miguel and decides not to terminate their tenuous friendship immediately. Dexter does not respond to Miguel’s moral appeal, but rather the emotional one. With Miguel, Dexter sees an opportunity to develop an emotional connection with somebody else, helping Miguel learn and evolve. The development of this friendship occurs in concert with Dexter’s rejection of Harry’s Code. Dexter’s principal motivation is emotional, and his interactions with Miguel demonstrate that.

  Dexter’s interactions with the Skinner at the end of season three are also evidence that Dexter’s deontology has an emotional foundation. He demonstrates throughout the course of the show that he has a better understanding of people that are similar to himself. He does not understand Masuka’s sexual dispositions, nor does he understand Rita’s desires in the family. This is largely because, as he admits himself, he does not share any similar emotions, and he hasn’t experienced such emotions in his life. Dexter understands the games that Rudy plays with him and also understands how Trinity operates. At the end of Season 3, Dexter is kidnapped by the Skinner. He escapes by stripping the Skinner of control by playing emotional games, telling the Skinner that Dexter has in fact already killed Freebo. Dexter identifies with the look in the Skinner’s eyes, saying that it is the same look he gets right before a kill. All these individuals that Dexter understands, and more, do not have genuine moral compasses. Or at least, they are portrayed as characters who do not have a genuine sense of moral duty. Dexter is much the same. A sense of moral duty doesn’t figure into Dexter’s life equation to any great degree.

  Dexter also shows his emotional self in dramatic ways when he deviates from the Code to help others. This is most evident when Dexter interacts with children or adolescents. For example, he deviates from his usual killings in order to kill a pedophile who begins following Astor, Rita’s son. Dexter shows a great degree of consideration for the way his actions will affect Rita’s children. The first victim Dexter spares is a teenager named Jeremy Downs. Dexter spares him because he empathizes with the teenager and feels that letting him go may be the best course of action. He also protects Trinity’s adolescent son from Trinity’s abuse. Dexter places the adolescents’ welfare above his own mission of observing Trinity and learning from him. Again, however, Dexter does not frame any of these actions as moral duties, but rather just as feelings. His arguments with Harry’s ghost regarding these incidents consist of him justifying his emotional responses. At these times, Dexter is operating upon emotional considerations that lead him to stray from his deontological Code.

  Dexter also goes through a great deal of trouble to protect his sister, Debra. Dexter takes the life of his own brother to protect her. He hides the truth about his father and mother in order to protect Debra from the emotional trauma she would experience. Dexter also lets Debra stay with him after her ordeal with Rudy until she gets back on her feet and feels safe enough to resume living on her own. Time and time again, Dexter strays from his standard modus operandi.

  Harry’s House

  Harry uses his stepson’s urges to carry out his own idea of justice. Harry is a police officer disillusioned with the legal system and with the society around him. He’s constantly faced with the shortcomings of law enforcement, and has resigned himself to accepting that the system is flawed and does not truly work. Harry was also a cause of the death of Dexter’s biological mother. Harry cannot help but continue to blame himself for her death even during Dexter’s adolescence. He sees an opportunity to take a step toward rectifying this situation when Dexter reveals his desire to kill.

  Harry uses his experience as an officer to train Dexter to kill, and more importantly, to avoid being captured. He teaches Dexter how to avoid leaving forensic evidence and to avoid being caught in the act. Dexter’s first victim is a nurse that treats Harry very poorly in the hospital and has killed several patients during her time. Harry oversees and encourages the killing of the nurse. Harry firmly believes that he has created a positive force in the world, and for a short time, he finds himself satisfied with the prospect of his son being such a positive force in the world.

  Eventually, though, when Harry comes face to face with his handiwork and sees Dexter carrying dismembered body parts, he cannot accept the reality of what his son has become, what he has turned his son into. This shock leads Harry to commit suicide.

  Dexter Is a Needy Ned

  Dexter’s killings serve emotional needs that developed as a result of his childhood trauma. As a helpless infant, he watched his mother get killed by a chainsaw in front of him, and had to sit for days in the resulting pool of her blood. What are the emotional needs that Dexter’s killing serve?

  First, Dexter seeks to establish control over his environment. This deep-seated need for control is a direct result of the trauma Dexter experienced in his childhood. Dexter blames himself for his mother’s death and seeks to establish control over this situation. The greatest evidence of this desire for control is the ritualistic way in which Dexter leads his life, and the corresponding breakdown of the rituals when Dexter is faced with things that challenge his worldview.

  Every kill Dexter carries out, with few exceptions, follows a meticulous and precise methodology. In the first two seasons, the viewer never sees Dexter depart from this methodology. While there are times when he’s uncertain and anxious, he’s never careless. He likes to be in control, and rarely shows his hand. Dexter is always sure to lay out his plastic coverings and seclude his killing lair. He always cleans up after himself, and he is always sure to draw a blood sample from each of his victims. Dexter likes his apartment to be arranged in a particular fashion, and he becomes irritated when Debra disturbs it. He likes his office at work to be arranged to his preferences, down to the blood spatter pictures he has up on his wall.

  It’s no coincidence that Dexter exhibits these obsessive-compulsive tendencies and a high desire to control his environment. Studies demonstrate that childhood trauma does correlate with an increased development of obsessive-compulsive behaviors.54 Dexter’s trauma has likely led to his neurotic impulses to control the environment around him, and to control every aspect of his killings. Futhermore, Dexter does not conform to the customs and practices of those around him. Although he puts on a good face for society, he does not truly understand why others behave the way they do, as vividly illustrated when he pushes Rita’s daughter Astor into the pool at a neighborhood get together. Those who experience a greater desire for control also tend to exhibit a diminished tendency to conform to the norm behaviors around them.55 Dexter’s trauma has led him to be an outcast in society, leaving him largely incapable of being normal, and leaving him without the desire to be like those around him, as well.

  Dexter’s desire for control, however, weakens when he faces new situations that challenge the way he lives. When Dexter starts his own family and begins feeling attachment that he has never experienced before, he rejects Harry’s Code. His desire for control diminishes slightly, and he becomes vulnerable with some of
the people in his life such as Lila, Rita, and Miguel. This is further evidence that Dexter’s childhood trauma has developed an emotional desire for control inside him. Research demonstrates that those who have a high desire for control tend to diminish that desire when they are faced with something that challenges their worldview. 56 Dexter’s worldview, Harry’s Code, is challenged by the new emotions and desires Dexter experiences after becoming part of a family, and his desire for control diminishes accordingly.

  Recall that the first time Dexter remembers the details of his mother’s death is when he decides to see a therapist. The doctor makes Dexter examine his emotional core, the reason behind his actions, and Dexter envisions the shipping container and the pool of blood from his infancy, the situation in which he was stripped of all control and was completely helpless. Dexter seeks to recreate scenarios in which he can become the killer. He becomes the very thing which made him feel so helpless as infant. This is the core strategy by which Dexter struggles to gain control over his childhood trauma. No wonder he identifies so much with Trinity, a man who seeks to recreate deaths from his past. All this evidence clearly shows that Dexter has a deep-seated emotional core that guides his actions. His killings, and the way his lives his life, do not follow mainly from logical or moral justifications. They follow from emotions that Dexter himself does not understand.

  The second emotional need Dexter serves through his killings is the desire to belong. While he initially chooses to distance himself emotionally from society, he eventually begins integrating himself into a family and neighborhood, sacrificing some of his prized control. Dexter begins to appreciate belonging and being accepted, especially in the lives of Rita’s children. He seeks to become a meaningful part of the lives of others. The only way he knows to do this, however, is through killing. He kills to protect Rita’s children. He uses killing to connect on a deeper level with Miguel Prado. He kills to protect Debra. Dexter even admits that he needs these people in his life, something that he initially denies. He feels more secure with others in his life.