Graham Walker explores what philosophical lessons there are to be found in the stories of science fiction.
Science fiction is a better vehicle for philosophy than other genres, argues Graham Walker. Image: Kurt Nordstrom.
Science fiction allows some of the most imaginative and visionary authors and film directors of all time to transport us to places where anything is possible and where the only rules are the rules of that fictional world’s creator. But at the same time, it is much more than this. Not only does science fiction challenge us think of the universe in new ways, it can also make us think about life from new and novel perspectives, to an extent which I would argue that non-science fiction simply can never achieve. For one, and for me personally, ‘sci-fi’ as a genre represents one of the best outlets for philosophy that is on offer today.
The basic goal of philosophy is to ask the big questions about life: what is consciousness? What is ‘free will’? What is morality and how do we be good? How best is a state run? Sci-fi as a genre is remarkable in its power to comment on all these questions, and in its ability to ask questions from unusual and innovative angles in order to genuinely problematise some of the philosophical answers to these questions that have been proposed over the ages.
What I am proposing is not a new or groundbreaking concept. Plato himself was aware of it, almost 2,500 years ago. In Plato’s greatest work, The Republic, Socrates describes the Ring of Gyges: a mythical ring which grants the wearer invisibility. By inventing this novel and impossible scenario enables, Socrates to ask genuine questions about what justice is and whether an intelligent person would act morally if he knew that he could never be caught in his immoral act. The stories of Homer, too, used the Greek pantheon in a similar manner. He paints the gods of ancient Greece as capricious and vindictive, allowing the reader to ponder why we are here and how we can make sense of a chaotic world.
Today, science fiction is still used to tackle the big questions of philosophy. The novel I,Robot by Isaac Asimov is a collection of short stories primarily exploring the nature of morality and consciousness. One short story though develops an elegant argument for how a rational thinker cold develop the idea of a higher power when they lack the necessary information to otherwise explain the nature of the world.
In my opinion, one of the most powerful sets of books (and currently films) is the Hunger Games trilogy. A dystopian fiction in the tradition of so many great twentieth century novels, The Hunger Games poses a range of powerful questions and answers. Author Suzanne Collins creates a satire on inequality, ridiculing the idea that those, literally, at the coal face work hardest and remain poor while others profit from their work. It asks what is good and evil, or right and wrong, for both the individual and the state, and it highlights the immorality and pointlessness of honour and revenge, and how greed can ultimately corrupt leaders even when they fight for a worthy cause. The writer George Orwell, who was one of the 20th century’s greatest writers of speculative fiction, posed many similar questions in Animal Farm.
It’s worth keeping an eye out as you next watch or read a work of science fiction. Be sure to ask yourself: what can aliens, superheroes and robots teach me about living well and living right?
Graham Walker is a student and blogger. Graham has studied psychology and cognitive behavioural therapy, and is currently studying for an MSc in occupational therapy. He blogs on various issues that he feels are important. You can follow him on Twitter at @think_damn_it.
See also: If you liked this post, you may like Doctor Who: Fifty Years of Humanism.
To be honest, I rarely read fiction these days, mainly because of lack of time.
I attended a Central London Humanists meeting around 18 months ago when a member in the audience asked what would a future society organised along humanist principles look like?
The main speaker seemed stumped and no one else seemed to be about to offer any answer to the question.
So I put my hand up and the person chairing the meeting – looking rather quizzical – indicated I could speak.
My answer was Star Trek, particularly the early versions of it, not the later versions.
Gene Roddenberry was a humanist and in creating the series Star Trek he tried to put into his episodes examples of what a humanistic, rational and scientific world would look like. Those episodes rarely ever dealt with religious material or – if they did – debunked them by showing that apparent gods were just species from elsewhere in the Univers with enhanced powers.
I doubt I will find time to read or watch much in the way of fiction, including science fiction, but I support attempts to display what a future humanist society will end up looking like – bearing in mind that it will remain subject to the forces of evolution.
I and others in the Humanist world have been making this same point for many, many years, but it is always good to see it repeated (so thank you Graham) because sadly John Dowdle’s feelings about fiction seem to be pervasive among Humanists. The Humanist community was one of the communities for which I wrote my science fiction novella ‘Automatic Lover’ in 2005, and the subsequent novel-length sequel, but my work never took off in BHA circles. This is incredibly frustrating as the sequel has a strong sex education theme, and I feel the current sex education debate would benefit from referencing it.
When I decided to post this comment, I planned to point readers to my Humanist Heroes Series tribute to Isaac Asimov. Unfortunately I discovered that Humanist Life does not keep pieces online for that long (it was published in July 2010). However, I have discovered it archived on feedblitz.com (apparently without images), if anybody is interested.
Hello John and Ariadne,
Thank you for your responses; I’m pleased that you enjoyed it.
I like the thought that a Humanist Society would be akin to some depictions of Star Trek. The Starship Enterprise, with it’s mission of peacefully exploring the universe for the sake of knowledge encapsulates this message well.
Spock and Kirk also appear represent how a person can be guided by their passion or guided by reason. I would argue that Spock is also guided by compassion and kindness as well as reason, as I think was the idea for the character, for without kindness and compassion to go with his reason what would stop him carrying out unkind actions in the name of utilitarian logic (like, say the psychopaths ‘Dexter’ ‘Mr Ripley’). For this, I see Spock as being the height of Humanism in Science Fiction, if only he loosened up and enjoyed himself a little more!
As I say John, and as Ariadne says, it is well worth making time for even just a little bit of Science Fiction as there will always be something novel to take from it.
Ariadne, I tried searching for your writing on feeblitz and was unable to find it; do you have a specific website?
The web address of my Asimov tribute on Feedblitz is a bit cumbersome, so I thought it could most easily be found by searching; sadly I seem to have been wrong. I have now got it a shortened form: http://tinyurl.com/ov37awv. I hope the BHA has some plans for the Humanist Heroes Series now that it is no longer online at Humanist Life (maybe a physical book?); there were many awe-inspiring people featured.
Automatic Lover can still be found at http://www.automaticlover.info, now with a substantial documentary introduction. The book containing both the novella and the sequel can be purchased through the BHA Amazon Store, along with many other books, both fiction and non-fiction. This can be found by selecting ‘Support us’ from the menu at the top of the BHA home page, to which there is a link at the top of this page.
Here’s our Amazon affiliate link – anything you buy on Amazon after following this link helps support the BHA http://www.amazon.co.uk/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=britishhumani-21&linkCode=sb1&camp=2378&creative=8438
Whenever you look at it, visualize your needs, and make
them known to the Universe. The survival of the soul through the change called death is on the verge of being openly
acknowledged by scientists and scholars of academic circles.
When we humans put things into perspective we will soon realize that science is no different from metaphysics and spirituality.
Science is entirely different to metaphysics and spirituality.
I recall a conference where I attended a number of papers from philosophers speculating about the results of thought experiments regarding sci-fi themes of mind-uploading, strong AI and teleportation and the like. What was really frustrating (both as a fan of SF and a philosopher) was the lack of awareness of what science fiction authors had written on these subjects. This wasn’t because I think that everyone should like the same fiction as me, but because many of the problems that were being discussed had already been considered in much greater detail elsewhere and there was a huge amount of ‘re-inventing the wheel’ going on (and that is the last thing philosophy needs).