Zombies, time travel, brain transplants… science fiction and philosophy have a lot in common. Indeed, they have a shared history, with some of the most important figures of the Enlightenment writing science fiction alongside their better-known philosophical work. And Naomi Alderman, Liu Cixin, and China Miéville are among the many that ensure this close relationship persists right up to today. From Francis Bacon’s utopian island to Margaret Cavendish’s polar bear army, our literary and philosophical experts discuss how science fiction and philosophy have influenced one another, putting the ‘phi’ back into ‘sci-fi’.

James Burton is Lecturer in Cultural Studies and Cultural History at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Lewis Powell is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Buffalo.

Lisa Walters is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Liverpool Hope University.

Clare Moriarty is a Fellow at the Forum for Philosophy and an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, University of Dublin.

The Forum for Philosophy (@forumphilosophy) is a non-profit organisation that hosts weekly events exploring science, politics, and the arts from a philosophical perspective.

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