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Introduction: Science and the Rise of Science Fiction

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Science Fiction and the Moral Imagination

Part of the book series: Science and Fiction ((SCIFICT))

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Abstract

Science fiction is a cultural response to the revolutions in science and technology during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. These altered the existing methods of industry and production, understandings of the universe and ourselves, and concepts of time and history. All of this offered new opportunities for storytelling. Science fiction arose in the nineteenth century as a narrative mode or genre defined by its characteristic forms of rationality, novelty, and realism. Most typically, it depicts future developments in social organization, science, and/or technology, and its main themes include the uses of technoscience and the effects of technological change. Science fiction writers have employed the characteristic tropes of SF to engage with a wide variety of philosophical and moral questions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Worse, there is a further distinction between the natural sciences and the social sciences. Throughout this book, I primarily have in mind the natural sciences whenever I refer to “science” or “scientists.” That is, I think, the usual assumption in English. But contrast the German term Wissenschaft, which has a far broader meaning.

  2. 2.

    Aldiss may not have been the first to make this claim about Frankenstein, but his authority certainly lent it great credibility.

  3. 3.

    Poland’s Stanislaw Lem is one author who immediately comes to mind as deserving more commentary than I’ve given.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia

    Russell Blackford

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  1. Russell Blackford
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Blackford, R. (2017). Introduction: Science and the Rise of Science Fiction. In: Science Fiction and the Moral Imagination. Science and Fiction. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61685-8_1

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