Philosophical fiction

Philosophical fiction refers to works of fiction in which a significant proportion of the work is devoted to a discussion of the sort of questions normally addressed in discursive philosophy. These might include the function and role of society, the purpose of life, ethics or morals, the role of art in human lives, and the role of experience or reason in the development of knowledge. Philosophical fiction works would include the so-called novel of ideas, including a significant proportion of science fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, and Bildungsroman. The modus operandi seems to be to use a normal story to simply explain difficult and/or dark parts of human life.

Prominent philosophical fiction

There is no universally acceptable definition of philosophical fiction, but certain works would be of key importance in its history.

Many philosophers write novels, plays, or short fiction in order to demonstrate or introduce their ideas. Common ones include: Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ayn Rand, Albert Camus, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Authors who are fans or followers of certain philosophers tend to incorporate many of their ideas in their novels, but they are not necessarily considered philosophical novels. Generally a novel needs to explicitly reference and discuss many philosophical ideas before it can be considered a philosophical novel. Some of these examples include: The Moviegoer (Kierkegaard), Wittgenstein's Mistress (Wittgenstein), and Speedboat (post-structuralism).