A phenomenological analysis of Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed. A new article, “Living in a Marxist Sci-Fi World,” by Lic. Matias Graffigna has just been published. This article examines, with the use of tools from phenomenological analysis, the power of science fiction to “flesh out” certain concepts left undetermined by philosophical theories, “furnishing with content” the […]

Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy: www.jsfphil.org —   The Blue Pill Dilemma: Is Knowledge a Blessing or a Curse? In the original The Matrix Neo took the Red Pill, choosing Truth – and got himself into a world of trouble. Wouldn’t the Blue Pill (of “Ignorance is Bliss”) have served him better? In dystopian tales, deep questioning is proscribed […]

The Blue Pill Dilemma: Is Knowledge a Blessing or a Curse?  The question about choosing knowledge or willful ignorance is at least as old as Plato’s Cave; older perhaps, down to the Tree of Good and Evil. Science Fiction writers can be as illuminating as they can be ambiguous. In the original The MatrixNeo took the […]

The votes are in for our 2020 yearly theme: Is Knowledge a Blessing or a Curse?  Thanks for all who voted to decide the 2020 Yearly Theme for the Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy. The theme that got the highest number of votes was #5: “Is Knowledge a Blessing or a Curse?” We will be sending a Call […]

If you haven’t voted yet, help us choose the Journal’s 2020 theme! What will our next Yearly Theme be? “Surveillance Capitalism” and the New Panopticon. This is a growing concern (and if you haven’t heard the expression, you probably will, soon). I don’t want to define it too narrowly, but it has to do with […]

Help us choose next year’s theme for the Journal! Dear Readers and Contributors: The Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy has just launched its newest issue! It is presently a small volume, with just a couple of articles; we have some articles under review and in preparation, which will continue populating this issue as they get published. […]

(A quiz for SF afficionados) Posted 2018-06-03 Take the “SF Persons” quiz! The characters portrayed here have been chosen because they all have some bearing on philosophical reflections about the notion of personhood. How many can you name?

Dystopian Caves and Galactic Empires: Social and Political Philosophy in SF.  One of the main roles of science fiction has been to warn us – sometimes humorously, sometimes through grim pessimism – of looming social dangers, the product of particular ideas, technologies or social trends. Just how powerful these warnings can be in the public’s […]

General Theme The Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy, a peer-reviewed, open access publication, is dedicated to the analysis of philosophical themes present in science fiction stories in all formats, with a view to their use in the discussion, teaching, and narrative modeling of philosophical ideas. It aims at highlighting the role of science fiction as […]