All Things - Themes

Themes

In the chapter "Scully as a Pragmatist Feminist" of the book The Philosophy of The X-Files, Erin McKenna argues that "all things" represents an "important shift" in Scully's approach to science, knowledge acquisition, and the pursuit of the truth. She reasons that the events of the episode open her mind to news ways of knowing, specifically citing, "auras, chakras, visions, and the importance of coincidence". McKenna argues that Scully's shift in perspective deliberately mirrored the shift in American pragmatism, a view that believes reality is ever-changing. In this manner, pragmatists believe "the truth is out there" much like Mulder. In "all things", Scully begins to embrace pragmatism, although she clings onto her skeptic roots. Mixing the two, Scully begins to represent "the pragmatist approach to knowledge and the truth". Scully soon evolves from a mere skeptic who demands proof to prove a truth, to an empiricist who wants proof but is open to other perspectives.

In addition, McKenna reasons that "all things" is heavily influenced by feminist philosophy, a school of thought that tries to criticise or re-evaluate the ideas of traditional philosophy from within a feminist framework. According to McKenna, feminism rejects dualistic ways of thinking. Feminist philosophy, instead, calls for a pluralistic way of thinking, noting that there is not one consistent set of truths about the world, but many. In the episode, Scully starts out "sure of her more rational scientific view and approach". However, as the episode goes on, she decides to branch out and engage in acts of investigation. Eventually, she brings in a spirit healer to "corroborate or nullify the new beliefs she is encountering". McKenna further deduces that the opening scene, in which Mulder and Scully are implied to have slept together, shows the merging of Scully's pragmatism with feminist philosophy.

When Mulder and Scully talk at the end of the episode, Mulder questions the fact that he left "town for two days and spoke to God in a Buddhist temple and God spoke back." Scully, however, notes that "I didn't say God spoke back". McKenna proposes that this is an example of Scully's rational scientific approach meshing with her newer, feministic pragmatism, which "are to be seen, not as competing systems, but as complementary, as are Scully and Mulder themselves." McKenna concludes that this is represented in the opening scene, in which Mulder and Scully are implied to have slept together; this one scene shows the full merging of Scully's pragmatism with feminist philosophy.