James Burton/ Lewis Powell/ Lisa Walters

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Zombies, time travel, brain transplants… science fiction and philosophy have a lot in common. Indeed, they have a shared history, with some of the most important figures of the Enlightenment writing science fiction alongside their better-known philosophical work. And Naomi Alderman, Liu Cixin, and China Miéville are among the many that ensure this close relationship persists right up to today. From Francis Bacon’s utopian island to Margaret Cavendish’s polar bear army, our literary and philosophical experts discuss how science fiction and philosophy have influenced one another, putting the ‘phi’ back into ‘sci-fi’.

Speakers
James Burton
Lecturer in Cultural Studies and Cultural History, Goldsmiths University of London
Lewis Powell
Professor of Philosophy, University of Buffalo
Lisa Walters
Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of Queensland

Chair
Clare Moriarty
Fellow, Forum for Philosophy & IRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Trinity College Dublin

Co-sponsored by the Royal Institute of Philosophy and the British Society for the History of Philosophy

Recorded on 1 December 2020

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