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Science Fiction and Political Philosophy

From Bacon to Black Mirror
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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.
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
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