The science fiction genre has become increasingly influential in mainstream popular culture, evolving into one of the most engaging storytelling tools we use to think about technology and consider the shape of the future. Along the way, it has also become one of the major lenses we use to explore important philosophical questions.
The origins of science fiction are most often thought to trace to Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, a story born from a night of spooky tale-telling by the fireside that explores scientific, moral, and ethical questions that were of great concern in the 19th century-and that continue to resonate today. And, although novels and short stories built the foundations of science fiction, film and television have emerged as equally powerful, experimental, and enjoyable ways to experience the genre. Even as far back as the silent era, films like Fritz Lang's Metropolis have used science fiction to tell stories that explore many facets of human experience.
In Sci-Phi: Science Fiction as Philosophy, Professor of Philosophy David Kyle Johnson, of King's College, takes you on a 24-lecture exploration of the final frontiers of philosophy across several decades of science fiction in film and television. From big-budget blockbusters to television series featuring aliens in rubber masks, Professor Johnson finds food for philosophical thought in a wide range of stories. By looking at serious questions through astonishing tales and astounding technologies, you will see how science fiction allows us to consider immense, vital-and sometimes controversial-ideas with a rare combination of engagement and critical distance.
All Lectures:
1. Inception and the Interpretation of Art
2. The Matrix and the Value of Knowledge
3. The Matrix Sequels and Human Free Will
4. The Adjustment Bureau, the Force, and Fate
5. Contact: Science versus Religion
6. Arrival: Aliens and Radical Translation
7. Interstellar: Is Time Travel Possible?
8. Doctor Who and Time Travel Paradoxes
9. Star Trek: TNG and Alternate Worlds
10. Dark City, Dollhouse, and Personal Identity
11. Westworld and A.I. Artificial Intelligence
12. Transcendence and the Dangers of AI
13. The Thirteenth Floor: Are We Simulated?
14. The Orville, Orwell, and the "Black Mirror"
15. Star Wars: Good versus Evil
16. Firefly, Blake's 7, and Political Rebellion
17. Starship Troopers, Doctor Who, and Just War
18. The Prime Directive and Postcolonialism
19. Capitalism in Metropolis, Elysium, and Panem
20. Snowpiercer and Climate Change
21. Soylent Green: Overpopulation and Euthanasia
22. Gattaca and the Ethics of Reproduction
23. The Handmaid's Tale: Feminism and Religion
24. Kubrick's 2001 and Nietzsche's Übermensch
