Sci-Phi Faves (Updated)
Eric Schwitzgebel thinks that science fiction and speculative fiction more broadly is “a powerful philosophical tool.” He has been soliciting suggestions of philosophical science fiction from other philosophers this week at The Splintered Mind and you can view the results here and here.
Sort of related (to this and the big story of late).
UPDATE (10/6/14): More here.
UPDATE (10/10/14): and here.
“It’s A Good LIfe”, a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone, is a terrific in-your-face presentation of The Euthyphro by presenting Billy Mumy’s Anthony as a god-like tyrant who arbitrarily controls everyone by his whims of like and dislike. Quite a risk for writer Rod Serling (based on a short story by Jerome Bixby), whose closing remarks were guarded in drawing conclusions:
“No comment here, no comment at all. We only wanted to introduce you to one of our very special citizens, little Anthony Fremont, age 6, who lives in a village called Peaksville in a place that used to be Ohio. And if by some strange chance you should run across him, you had best think only good thoughts. Anything less than that is handled at your own risk, because if you do meet Anthony, you can be sure of one thing: you have entered The Twilight Zone.”
See also The Simpsons, “Treehouse of Horror II,” which includes a parody of this episode.
He should read French thinkers: http://www.cairn.info/revue-raisons-politiques-2010-4-page-97.htm
I love the interface of science fiction and philosophy. Thanks for the pointers to more books to read. I’ve been enjoying these sorts of things for years. There are so many good sci phi authors. Robert J. Sawyer is one of my favourites and John C. Wright was a recent discovery along the same lines.
You might be interested in a magazine I recently launched Sci Phi Journal (http://sciphijournal.com) that looks at such ideas and has some short stories as well.