"Sometimes called the "literature of ideas," science fiction is a natural medium for normative political philosophy. Science fiction's focus on technology, space and time travel, non-human lifeforms, and parallel universes cannot help but invoke the perennial questions of political life, including the nature of a just social order and who should rule; freedom, free will, and autonomy; and the advantages and disadvantages of progress. Rather than offering a reading of a work inspired by a particular thinker or tradition, each chapter presents a careful reading of a classic or contemporary work in the genre (a novel, short story, film, or television series) to illustrate and explore the themes and concepts of political philosophy."--publisher description.

• Contents
• An Introduction to Science Fiction and Political Philosophy
• 1 Fiction and the Science of Self-Reflection
• 2 Utopianism and Realism in Shakespeare’s The Tempest
• 3 Frankenstein and the Ugliness of Enlightenment
• 4 Technology and Anxiety in Melville’s “Lightning-Rod Man”
• 5 The Head, the Hands, and the Heart
• 6 Technology and Human Nature in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World
• 7 An Exhortation to Secure Humanity against the Buggers
• 8 Seeing and Being Seen in the Kingdom of Ends
• 9 Knowledge of Death in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go
• 10 Founding a Posthuman Political Order in M. R. Carey’s The Girl with All the Gifts
• 11 Bacon, Transhumanism, and Reflections from the Black Mirror
• Index
• About the Contributors