The Philosophy of Science Fiction | Shout - The Daily Star

Imagine this: three people have spent their entire lives chained inside a cave, facing a blank wall, unable to turn their heads, as The Daily Star reports.
  

Photo: The Daily Star

Behind them, at the other end of the cave, is a fire that allows shadows to be cast on the wall that the prisoners are faced towards. The space between the prisoners and the fire is used by the rest of the society to pass through with different objects and maybe even their pet/ domesticated animals. The prisoners start to name and classify their perceptions of the shadows as actual entities. One day, one of the prisoners is set free so he finds his way out of the cave. Experiencing what objects really look like for the first time, the prisoner has a hard time believing that the illusions he believed to be true were actually mere reflections. Gradually, his eyes start to adjust and he can look at reflections in water, objects themselves and even the Sun. Next, he goes back to the cave to educate his partners about the discoveries he just made but finds himself unable to observe the shadows as clearly as he used to be able to. Upon listening to his stories, his partners start to believe that the journey has made him blind and ignorant; hence, they resist any attempts to be freed.

As great as it would be as a plot for a science fiction novel or movie, this is actually a passage written and represented by Plato, the famous Greek philosopher, in his work 'Republic'. While science fiction and philosophy might seem like two completely unrelated disciplines, they have a deep correlation. Philosophy is a discipline that enquires into the nature of reality, ethics and humanity at its core whereas the genre of science fiction is one that seems to explore questions about who we are and what governs the world and humanity. Thus, science fiction is an ideal form of literature for exploring ideas and arguments of philosophy...

Unlike most genres that use the familiar to build images of the world around us, science fiction makes use of bizarre creations and worlds to portray the insanity of the world around us. Philosophy therefore, gives science fiction the perfect genesis to give us an insight on the possibilities of reality.
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Source: The Daily Star