Description

Sometimes called the “literature of ideas,” science fiction is a natural medium for normative political philosophy. Science fiction’s focus on technology, space and time travel, non-human lifeforms, and parallel universes cannot help but invoke the perennial questions of political life, including the nature of a just social order and who should rule; freedom, free will, and autonomy; and the advantages and disadvantages of progress. Rather than offering a reading of a work inspired by a particular thinker or tradition, each chapter presents a careful reading of a classic or contemporary work in the genre (a novel, short story, film, or television series) to illustrate and explore the themes and concepts of political philosophy.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Fiction and the Science of Self-Reflection: Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis and the Idols of the Mind

Chapter 2: Utopianism and Realism in Shakespeare’s The Tempest

Chapter 3: Frankenstein and the Ugliness of Enlightenment,

Chapter 4: Technology and Anxiety in Melville’s Lightning-Rod Man

Chapter 5: The Head, the Hands, and the Heart: Political Rationalism in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis

Chapter 6: Technology and Human Nature in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World

Chapter 7: An Exhortation to Secure Humanity against the Buggers: Ender’s Game

Chapter 8: Seeing and Being Seen in the Kingdom of Ends: On Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith, and Star Trek: The Next Generation

Chapter 9: Knowledge of Death in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go

Chapter 10: Founding a Posthuman Political Order in M. R. Carey's The Girl with All the Gifts

Chapter 11: Bacon, Transhumanism, and Reflections from the Black Mirror

Product details

Published 04 Mar 2022
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 250
ISBN 9781498586450
Imprint Lexington Books
Dimensions 220 x 153 mm
Series Politics, Literature, & Film
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Anthology Editor

Timothy McCranor

Anthology Editor

Steven Michels

Steven Michels is associate professor of political…

Contributor

Nivedita Bagchi

Contributor

Tobin L. Craig

Contributor

Erin A. Dolgoy

Contributor

Daniel Kapust

Contributor

Steven Michels

Steven Michels is associate professor of political…

Contributor

David Whitney

Contributor

Paul T. Wilford

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