Finding philosophy in science fiction
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The science fiction genre is rich with stories that explore classical philosophical questions and exploit timeless philosophical puzzles and paradoxes – the possibility and limits of human knowledge, Pyrrhonism, the nature of time, paradoxes of time travel, the possibility of free human action, questions of life and sentience, identity, morphing (changelings), etc.
PHILOSOPHICAL THEMES IN SCIENCE FICTION
Minds, bodies, machines, & selves
Selves and transporters; minds, robots, machines, inventions, travel devices
The real and the virtual
Memories, real and artificial; virtual realities and knowledge; illusions and delusions
Time travel and paradox
Paradox, inconsistency and time travel and freedom; physical laws; origins and endings; eternity; mortality and immortality
Freedom, determinism, and choice
Actions as caused & predictable or random; freedom and enslavement; independence and hives; chance; responsibility and necessity; expectation, anticipation and disappointment
Moral choices
The greatest good for the greatest number; intervention and relativism; conflict; war and peace; heroes and villains; predator and prey; fairness and judgment; crime and punishment; love and hate; will and desire; duty, conquest and victory
Human flourishing
Drugs, Virtual Reality, pain and pleasure; artificial enhancement; romance; life and death
Gods and other beings
Meeting gods or demons; what does it take to be a god or demon?
Contingency, chaos, and meaning
Fate, purpose, and (no) reasons for things; harmony; communication and symbols
Art and aesthetics
Beauty and repulsive
http://books.google.com/books?id=hCf7qKKmxNsC&dq=%22science+fiction%22+philosophy&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0
The Philosopher at the End of the Universe demonstrates how anyone can grasp the basic concepts of philosophy while still holding a bucket of popcorn. Mark Rowlands makes philosophy utterly relevant to our everyday lives and reveals its most potent messages using nothing more than a little humor and the plotlines of some of the most spectacular, expensive, high-octane films on the planet.
Learn about: The Nature of Reality from The Matrix, Good and Evil from Star Wars, Morality from Aliens, Personal Identity from Total Recall, The Mind-Body dilemma from Terminator, Free Will from Minority Report, Death and the Meaning of Life from Blade Runner, and much more. A search for knowledge about ourselves and the world around us with a star-studded cast that includes: Tom Cruise, Plato, Harrison Ford, Immanuel Kant, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigourney Weaver, Rene? Descartes, and Keanu Reeves.
Rowlands anchors his discussions in easily understood everyday terms and relates them in a manner easy to identify with. Interspersed with a ready joke or two, he wonderfully explains why those SciFi movies we love so much are much deeper than they appear to be on the surface. Mark Rowlands's entertaining and stimulating guide is perfect for anyone searching for knowledge of the world around us.
If Keanu can understand Descartes surely everyone can.
More details
The Philosopher at the End of the Universe: Philosophy Explained Through Science Fiction Films
By Mark Rowlands Published by Macmillan, 2004 288 pages
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How to Live Forever
By Stephen R. L. Clark
http://books.google.com/books?id=VH2EB3FSupAC&dq=%22science+fiction%22+philosophy&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0
Immortality has long preoccupied everyone from alchemists to science fiction writers. In this intriguing investigation, Stephen Clark contends that the genre of science fiction writing enables the investigation of philosophical questions about immortality without the constraints of academic philosophy. He shows how fantasy accounts of phenomena such as resurrection, outer body experience, reincarnation or life extending medicines can be related to philosophy in interesting ways. Reading Western myths such as that of vampire, he examines the ways fear and hopes of immortality are an intrinsic part of Western culture and philosophy. As one of the first works to suggest the use of science fiction in the study of philosophy, Clark creates a ground for intellectual, philosophical and experimental inquiry.
More details
How to Live Forever: Science Fiction and Philosophy
By Stephen R. L. Clark, Published by Routledge, 1995 223 pages
Favorite Sci-Fi lists (2008) - check for updates at:
http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/topscifi/index.html
Top 100 Sci-Fi Books
Rank / Author/Editor / Title / Year1 / Frank Herbert / Dune [S1] / 1965
2 / Orson Scott Card / Ender's Game [S1] / 1985
3 / Isaac Asimov / Foundation [S1-3] / 1951
4 / Douglas Adams / Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy [S1] / 1979
5 / George Orwell / 1984 / 1949
6 / Robert A Heinlein / Stranger in a Strange Land / 1961
7 / Ray Bradbury / Fahrenheit 451 / 1954
8 / Arthur C Clarke / 2001: A Space Odyssey / 1968
9 / Isaac Asimov / [C] I, Robot / 1950
10 / William Gibson / Neuromancer / 1984
11 / Robert A Heinlein / Starship Troopers / 1959
12 / Philip K Dick / Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? / 1968
13 / Larry Niven / Ringworld / 1970
14 / Aldous Huxley / Brave New World / 1932
15 / Arthur C Clarke / Rendezvous With Rama / 1973
16 / H G Wells / The Time Machine / 1895
17 / H G Wells / The War of the Worlds / 1898
18 / Robert A Heinlein / The Moon is a Harsh Mistress / 1966
19 / Dan Simmons / Hyperion [S1] / 1989
20 / Arthur C Clarke / Childhood's End / 1954
21 / Ray Bradbury / [C] The Martian Chronicles / 1950
22 / Joe Haldeman / The Forever War / 1974
23 / Kurt Vonnegut / Slaughterhouse Five / 1969
24 / Neal Stephenson / Snow Crash / 1992
25 / Niven & Pournelle / The Mote in God's Eye / 1975
26 / Ursula K Le Guin / The Left Hand of Darkness / 1969
27 / Orson Scott Card / Speaker for the Dead [S2] / 1986
28 / Philip K Dick / The Man in the High Castle / 1962
29 / Isaac Asimov / The Caves of Steel / 1954
30 / Frederik Pohl / Gateway / 1977
31 / Michael Crichton / Jurassic Park / 1990
32 / Madeleine L'Engle / A Wrinkle In Time / 1962
33 / Jules Verne / 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea / 1870
34 / Roger Zelazny / Lord of Light / 1967
35 / Alfred Bester / The Stars My Destination / 1956
36 / Stanislaw Lem / Solaris / 1961
37 / Kurt Vonnegut / Cat's Cradle / 1963
38 / Carl Sagan / Contact / 1985
39 / Robert A Heinlein / Time Enough For Love / 1973
40 / John Wyndham / The Day of the Triffids / 1951
41 / Neal Stephenson / Cryptonomicon / 1999
42 / Isaac Asimov / The Gods Themselves / 1972
43 / Anthony Burgess / A Clockwork Orange / 1962
44 / Michael Crichton / The Andromeda Strain / 1969
45 / Daniel Keyes / Flowers for Algernon / 1966
46 / Philip K Dick / UBIK / 1969
47 / Vernor Vinge / A Fire Upon the Deep / 1991
48 / Kim Stanley Robinson / Red Mars [S1] / 1992
49 / Mary Shelley / Frankenstein / 1818
50 / Isaac Asimov / The End Of Eternity / 1955
51 / Walter M Miller / A Canticle for Leibowitz / 1959
52 / Kurt Vonnegut / The Sirens of Titan / 1959
53 / Neal Stephenson / The Diamond Age / 1995
54 / Iain M Banks / Player Of Games [S2] / 1988
55 / Jules Verne / Journey to the Center of the Earth / 1864
56 / L Ron Hubbard / Battlefield Earth / 1982
57 / Ursula K Le Guin / The Dispossessed / 1974
58 / Orson Scott Card / Ender's Shadow [S1] / 1999
59 / Niven & Pournelle / Lucifer's Hammer / 1977
60 / Greg Bear / Eon / 1985
61 / David Brin / Startide Rising [S2] / 1983
62 / Peter F Hamilton / The Reality Dysfunction [S1] / 1996
63 / Philip Jose Farmer / To Your Scattered Bodies Go / 1971
64 / Alfred Bester / The Demolished Man / 1953
65 / Margaret Atwood / The Handmaid's Tale / 1985
66 / Harry Harrison / The Stainless Steel Rat [S1] / 1961
67 / Gene Wolfe / The Shadow of the Torturer [S1] / 1980
68 / Arthur C Clarke / The City and the Stars / 1956
69 / Philip K Dick / The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch / 1964
70 / Philip K Dick / A Scanner Darkly / 1977
71 / Robert A Heinlein / The Door Into Summer / 1956
72 / Robert A Heinlein / Citizen Of the Galaxy / 1957
73 / Connie Willis / Doomsday Book / 1992
74 / C S Lewis / Out of the Silent Planet [S1] / 1938
75 / Robert A Heinlein / The Puppet Masters / 1951
76 / Robert A Heinlein / Have Space-Suit - Will Travel / 1958
77 / H G Wells / The Invisible Man / 1897
78 / Clifford Simak / Way Station / 1963
79 / Dan Simmons / Ilium / 2003
80 / John Wyndham / The Chrysalids / 1955
81 / Edgar Rice Burroughs / A Princess of Mars [S1] / 1912
82 / Ursula K Le Guin / The Lathe of Heaven / 1971
83 / Iain M Banks / Use of Weapons [S3] / 1990
84 / Julian May / The Many-Colored Land [S1] / 1981
85 / Michael Crichton / Sphere / 1987
86 / Alastair Reynolds / Revelation Space [S1] / 2000
87 / William Gibson / [C] Burning Chrome / 1986
88 / E E 'Doc' Smith / Grey Lensman [S4] / 1951
89 / Mark Twain / A Connecticut Yankee in KA's Court / 1889
90 / John Brunner / Stand on Zanzibar / 1969
91 / Arthur C Clarke / The Fountains of Paradise / 1979
92 / Edwin A Abbott / Flatland / 1884
93 / Philip K Dick / VALIS / 1981
94 / Audrey Niffenegger / The Time Traveler's Wife / 2003
95 / Stanislaw Lem / [C] The Cyberiad / 1974
96 / David Brin / The Postman / 1985
97 / Arkady & Boris Strugatsky / Roadside Picnic / 1972
98 / James Blish / [C] Cities in Flight / 1955
99 / Clifford Simak / [C] City / 1952
100 / Theodore Sturgeon / More Than Human / 1953
http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/topscifi/lists_books_rank1.html
Top 100 Sci-Fi Films
Rank / Title / Director / Year / Min.1 / Blade Runner / Ridley Scott / 1982 / 118
2 / Star Wars Trilogy IV-VI (1977-83) / George Lucas, et al / 1977 / 125*
3 / The Matrix / L & A Wachowski / 1999 / 136
4 / Alien / Ridley Scott / 1979 / 117
5 / 2001: A Space Odyssey / Stanley Kubrick / 1968 / 139
6 / Aliens / James Cameron / 1986 / 137
7 / The Terminator / James Cameron / 1984 / 108
8 / The Fifth Element / Luc Besson / 1997 / 127
9 / Terminator 2 - Judgement Day / James Cameron / 1991 / 135
10 / Twelve Monkeys / Terry Gilliam / 1995 / 131
11 / The Day the Earth Stood Still / Robert Wise / 1951 / 92
12 / Planet of the Apes / Franklin J Schaffner / 1968 / 112
13 / Forbidden Planet / Fred M Wilcox / 1956 / 98
14 / A Clockwork Orange / Stanley Kubrick / 1971 / 137
15 / Back to the Future / Robert Zemeckis / 1985 / 116
16 / Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan / Nicholas Meyer / 1982 / 113
17 / Close Encounters of the Third Kind / Steven Spielberg / 1977 / 135
18 / Jurassic Park / Steven Spielberg / 1993 / 127
19 / Brazil / Terry Gilliam / 1985 / 142
20 / Gattaca / Andrew Niccol / 1997 / 106
21 / Star Wars I-III (1999-2005) / George Lucas / 1999 / 133
22 / E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial / Steven Spielberg / 1982 / 115
23 / Dr Strangelove / Stanley Kubrick / 1964 / 94
24 / Dark City / Alex Proyas / 1998 / 100
25 / Dune / David Lynch / 1984 / 137
26 / Predator / John McTiernan / 1987 / 106
27 / Independence Day / Roland Emmerich / 1996 / 110
28 / The Thing / John Carpenter / 1982 / 108
29 / The Abyss / James Cameron / 1989 / 145
30 / Contact / Robert Zemeckis / 1996 / 150
31 / Stargate / Roland Emmerich / 1994 / 122
32 / Metropolis / Fritz Lang / 1926 / 120
33 / Total Recall / Paul Verhoeven / 1990 / 109
34 / The War of the Worlds / Byron Haskin / 1953 / 85
35 / Minority Report / Steven Spielberg / 2002 / 145
36 / The Time Machine / George Pal / 1960 / 103
37 / Mad Max / George Miller / 1979 / 93
38 / Starship Troopers / Paul Verhoeven / 1997 / 129
39 / Donnie Darko / Richard Kelly / 2001 / 122
40 / Star Trek: First Contact / Jonathan Frakes / 1996 / 110
41 / Invasion of the Body Snatchers / Don Siegel / 1956 / 80
42 / Logan's Run / Michael Anderson / 1976 / 118
43 / Men in Black / Barry Sonnenfeld / 1997 / 98
44 / V for Vendetta / James McTeigue / 2005 / 132
45 / The Andromeda Strain / Robert Wise / 1970 / 127
46 / X-Men / Bryan Singer / 2000 / 104
47 / Serenity / Joss Whedon / 2005 / 119
48 / Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home / Leonard Nimoy / 1986 / 119
49 / The Road Warrior (vt Mad Max 2) / George Miller / 1981 / 96
50 / Galaxy Quest / Dean Parisot / 1999 / 104
51 / Soylent Green / Richard Fleischer / 1973 / 100
52 / Akira / Katsuhiro Otomo / 1987 / 124
53 / Solaris / Andrei Tarkovsky / 1972 / 165
54 / Tron / Steven Lisberger / 1982 / 96
55 / RoboCop / Paul Verhoeven / 1987 / 102
56 / Silent Running / Douglas Turnbull / 1971 / 89
57 / Pitch Black / David Twohy / 2000 / 107
58 / The Thing (From Another World) / Christian Nyby / 1951 / 89
59 / A.I. - Artificial Intelligence / Steven Spielberg / 2001 / 145
60 / Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind / Michel Gondry / 2004 / 108
61 / THX-1138 / George Lucas / 1970 / 88
62 / Spider-Man / Sam Raimi / 2002 / 121
63 / Superman / Richard Donner / 1978 / 143
64 / Them! / Gordon Douglas / 1954 / 94
65 / Star Trek VI - Undiscovered Country / Nicholas Meyer / 1991 / 101
66 / Fahrenheit 451 / Francois Truffaut / 1966 / 111
67 / 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea / Richard Fleischer / 1954 / 127
68 / The Omega Man / Boris Sagal / 1971 / 98
69 / Escape From New York / John Carpenter / 1981 / 99
70 / Westworld / Michael Crichton / 1973 / 88