Recently, we have addressed philosophical issues in:
Personal Change
Them And Us
This recalls earlier comparisons of sf with philosophy in:
Socratic Fiction
Philosophical Fiction: Heraclitus
Socratic Fiction?
Freedom And Determinism
Language
Philosophy And Fiction: Wittgenstein, Lewis And Anderson
Philosophy And Fiction II
A Philosophical Challenge
Philosophical Fiction: Hegel
Philosophical Fiction: Bergson And Hegel
Philosophy And Literature
Literature, Philosophy And Mythology
Personal And Cosmic Futures
Origins Of Science
And any such search turns up posts that I had completely forgotten about.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
About the only thing I can think of for comment here is how, after I finished reading Mark O'Connell's TO BE A MACHINE and S.M. Stirling's SHADOWS OF FALLING NIGHT I was uncertain what to read next. Then I recalled how I mentioned some weeks ago YOU SHALL KNOW THEM, a novel by Jean Bruller (better known as "Vercors"). It had been many, many years since I've read that book.
Vercors may have meant that book as satire, but it's far more than that. YOU SHALL KNOW THEM asks and strives to answer the philosophical question: what is man? What makes the human race human? How can we resolve the question of whether, if an earlier hominid species is found ALIVE, of whether or not it is human? I'm inclined to think of that book as an example of anthropological or paleontological science fiction.
In his short story "The Quest For St. Aquin," Anthony Boucher also asks the question of what is mand and extends that to non human races. I think the closest Poul Anderson came to writing an anthropological short story would be "The Little Monster." Perhaps I should include "Night Piece" as well because the question in that story is what distinguishes mankind FROM an alien race living on Earth as well.
Sean
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