Science Fiction and Political Philosophy: From Bacon to Black Mirror

Science Fiction and Political Philosophy: From Bacon to Black Mirror. Timothy McCranor and Steven Michels, eds.. Lanham, MD.: Lexington Books, 2020.

Science Fiction and Political Philosophy is a broad collection of essays done by a variety of authors and edited by Timothy McCranor and Steven Michels. It covers topics from within the Si-fi genre of film and literature in a relatively chronological method from Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis in the seventeenth century all the way up to the TV show Black Mirror here in the twenty-first century. These topics which involve moral and ethical problems, what it means to be human/sentient, as well as the benefits and disadvantages of the ever growing possibilities of science and technology, which are all viewed through the lens of political philosophers from Socrates all the way up to Rawls and others of the Transhumanist movement.

McCranor in his introduction makes clear that the goals of this modest collection are twofold. First, McCranor claims that the said volume was done for the benefit of developing more work in this rich, yet largely still unexplored field of inquiry. McCranor hopes that this collection will inspire others to further create better projects within this concept. Secondly, and most importantly, McCranor makes clear that the main aspect of using political philosophy to deeper investigate science fiction is that the Genre forces people who read or watch it to confront serious questions and problems that we as a human race are dealing with or may have to deal with in the near future. According to McCranor these can be both good and bad issues of course depending on the matter but still need to be looked at nonetheless. What unfolds in the following eleven chapters is a nicely compact, yet immensely deep analytical dive into the world of science fiction. With each chapter being its own self composed piece within the wider topic it may be easier to just summarize a handful of the chapters rather than go chapter by chapter, which would take far too long.

Starting with chapter one Erin Dolgoy and Kimberly Hale look at Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis. In the essay the authors look to understand Bacon through his Idols of the mind, which contains four parts (Tribe, The Cave, The Marketplace, and The Theatre) and how these work into Bacon’s “instauration.” The whole point of Bacon’s work seems to be to bring others on an adventure to see how ready the world was for the new sciences, which in Bacon’s mind would bring nothing but progress to the world. Bacon’s Idols of the mind seem to fit in well in as the authors make evident the connectedness of this concept within the narrative of the text such as with Idols of the Tribe which the crew of the ship and especially the narrator that ends up at the port of Bensalem and coming with preconceived notions from their understanding before and put those ideals unto the people there on the island. While Bacon is making this all seem beneficial, hale and Dolgoy beg the question of whether the common residents of the island are even truly happy or free. We also get confronted with if the citizens have any power to exercise themselves as this does not appear to be the case to the point that even some knowledge is kept from them as is revealed by those in charge to the narrator. The main point of New Atlantis is that through interpreting the work using Bacon’s idols of the mind we can see that one his is attempting to persuade others to accept the new sciences and that we can have a world like the Bensalem and that humans can become more critical and yet more open minded to the possibilities of accepting the new sciences. According to the authors it is with these Idols of the Mind in which we can examine our owns beliefs, make clear what is fact and fiction, as well as evaluate those in the novel.

Later in chapter three, Frankenstein and the Ugliness of Enlightenment by Jeff Black we see him trying to understand Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein through the lens of Rousseau’s works, which Shelley was well acquainted with as the author makes evident. In the text Black proclaims that the novel plays off the concerns and problems of enlightenment and how unstable it can be using Rousseau’s reasoning. The idea that the heart is as important as the mind plays its part in this essay and how the reason of the Enlightenment can only take you so far and in some ways make you much more miserable at best, where at worst can be outright dangerous.

Much later in chapter eight, Seeing and Being Seen in the Kingdom of Ends we see Daniel Kapust cover Star Trek’s “I Borg” episode, which can be evaluated through Kantian as well as Adam Smith’s morals and political philosophy. Within summarizing the episode Kapust shows that the Federation in the show is motivated by Kant’s philosophy and outlines how this is the case with their charter as shown in another episode and how they value respecting all beings equally and individuals more over. However, the episode shows the short comings of this ideology as the crew find a lone Borg who they capture and are forced to make the decision of using them as a weapon to infect and eradicate the entirety of the Borg who work as a sole collective entity. Captain Picard is especially failed by Kantian ethics as he is for most of the episode for using the Borg as a weapon to commit genocide, which goes against their principles. This is made worse when the Borg starts to show individuality and think for themself. Adam Smith is also needed in this case to make up for these lapses in the crew’s thoughts. By the end they do end up deciding to let the Borg go and put them where they found the Borg.

Finally, in chapter eleven we the reader make a full round about as we again return to Bacon but also with the addition of covering Black Mirror. In the chapter by David Whitney and Steven Michels discuss two episodes within the TV show “The Entire History of You” and “San Junipero.” In these representative episodes we find one ending more depressing and one ending on a happier note, yet both contain ethical and political issues as is pointed out by the authors. Issues of whether it is okay or truly beneficial or not to use these technologies to change us as humans and while there may be befits to have, one also needs to pay attention to the limits and flaws of intuiting such technology as “the gain” which records every moment of your life and can be played back by you or other, as well as the technology in San Junipero which changes the meaning of death by uploading a copy of you into a play to live after death. Bacon is brought back because as was shown in chapter one he was aiming for full acceptance of science and how it can benefit you and how spawning off him the Transhumanist movement carries this idea to the extreme as nothing but a good. However, as the text discusses there are problems and limitations to this idea that science trumps all and needs to be fully accepted as there are far to many ethical issues as well as there still needs to be room for things such as religion. This of course according to the authors does not mean an outright rejection of technology or the benefits it may or can offer, but does mean such developing technology should be critically questioned as to what advantages it gives and what it takes away from humanity.

This book manages to cover so many bases in its deep dive into science fiction and philosophy. The book is a good addition to a field of study that simply needs more research and texts in it. The work and its authors do a good job of keeping it focused and compact all while covering a wide array of science fiction and political philosophy. While it would be nice to see more novels and films covered than what could be covered here it is also understandable why they chose to limit it to what the book does contain, as the genre is a vast one indeed and even defining what science fiction is can be difficult as McCranor points out in the introduction, which is why he also points out they limited it to what they did. The only other problem with the text would be that each readers mileage may vary on each chapter’s impact on them depending on how acquainted they are with each book or film. One example for me personally was that the chapter covering Enders Game while really good and thought provoking may not have had its full impact on me as I have never read the series before, where the chapter on Frankenstein especially connected with me. That problem is minor however as overall the book is wonderfully put together and offers many perspectives and analysis of an amazing genre. This collection is highly recommended reading for those interesting in science fiction, philosophy, and just over all assessing the questions and problems we as a human race, could or will face at some point, as these are serious matters to which we as a species must consider.

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