Philosophical fiction

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Philosophical fiction
Novel of ideas

Philosophical fiction refers to the class of works of fiction which devote a significant portion of their content to 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 some science fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, and the Bildungsroman.

Prominent philosophical fiction[edit]


There is no universally accepted definition of philosophical fiction, but a sampling of notable works can help to outline its history.

Some philosophers write novels, plays, or short fiction in order to demonstrate or introduce their ideas. Common examples include: Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ayn Rand, Albert Camus, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Authors who admire certain philosophers may incorporate their ideas into the principal themes or central narratives of novels. Some examples include: The Moviegoer (Kierkegaard), Wittgenstein's Mistress (Wittgenstein), and Speedboat (post-structuralism).

A special case is that of Plato's Socratic dialogues. While possibly based on real events, it is widely accepted that with a few exceptions (the most likely being the Apology), the dialogues were entirely Plato's creation. On the other hand, the "plots" of these dialogues consist of men discussing philosophical matters, so the degree to which they fall into what moderns would recognize as "fiction" is unclear.

Author Name Date Notes
St. Augustine De Magistro 4th century Early example
Yehuda Halevi The Kuzari 12th century Early example; Arabic
Voltaire Zadig 1747 Early example
Voltaire Candide 1759 Early example
J.-J. Rousseau Julie, or the New Heloise 1761 Early example
James Hogg The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner 1824
Walter Pater Marius the Epicurean 1885
Thomas Carlyle Sartor Resartus 1833-34 Canonical
Goethe Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship 1795-96 Canonical
Leo Tolstoy War and Peace 1869 Canonical
Robert Musil The Man Without Qualities 1930-43 Canonical
Milan Kundera The Unbearable Lightness of Being 1984
Aldous Huxley After Many a Summer 1939
Aldous Huxley Island 1962
C.S. Lewis Space Trilogy 1938, 1943, 1945
Leo Tolstoy Resurrection 1899
Louis-Ferdinand Céline Journey to the End of the Night 1932
Marcel Proust In Search of Lost Time 1913–1927
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry The Little Prince 1943
André Malraux Man's Fate 1933
Thomas Mann The Magic Mountain 1924
Franz Kafka The Trial 1925
Philip K. Dick Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 1968
Philip K. Dick A Scanner Darkly 1977
Philip K. Dick VALIS 1981 A novel version of his longer non-fiction book The Exegesis, outlining his intense interest in the nature of reality, metaphysics and religion.
Jean-Paul Sartre Nausea 1938
Simone de Beauvoir Les Bouches inutiles (fr) 1944 An existential play outlining Simone de Beauvoir's philosophy.
Osamu Dazai No Longer Human 1948
Jostein Gaarder Sophie's World 1991
Yukio Mishima The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea 1963
David Foster Wallace Infinite Jest 1996 Criticizes Poststructuralism/Postmodernism; influenced by Wittgenstein & Existentialism; introduces Metamodernism/Post-postmodernism.
Robert M Pirsig Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance 1974 Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality
Most novels by Albert Camus Absurdism
Most novels by Franz Kafka Existential Nihilism
Most novels by Hermann Hesse 1904-53
Most novels by Stanislaw Lem 1946-2005
Most novels by Ayn Rand 1934-82 Objectivism
Plays by Samuel Beckett 1938 - 1961


Novels by Iris Murdoch 1953-97
Novels by Anthony Burgess 1956-93
Novels by Simone de Beauvoir Existentialism; Feminism
Novels by Jean-Paul Sartre Existentialism
Novels by Andre Malraux
Novels by Marcel Proust[3]
Novels by Stendhal
Novels by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 1846-81 Existentialism
Novels by G. K. Chesterton 1874-1936
Novels by Clarice Lispector
The stories of Jorge Luis Borges Classical Liberalism
The novels of Umberto Eco Semiotics
The novels of Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

Atheism; Feminism

See also[edit]


  3. ^ Joshua Landy, Philosophy As Fiction: Self, Deception, and Knowledge in Proust, Oxford University Press (2004)

External links[edit]