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- The origins of philosophical novels can be traced back to ancient philosophical dialogues, where great thinkers like Plato and Socrates used fictional conversations to explore profound ideas. However, the emergence of philosophical novels as a distinct genre occurred during the Enlightenment period in the 18th century.
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Rooted in the thoughts of both ancient and modern intellectuals, philosophical fiction delivers intricate ideas through compelling storylines. It’s a genre that stretches your thinking, pleases the reader in you, and most vitally, incites you to ponder and contemplate.
The philosophical novel has a venerable history. The first Arabic novel, Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān ( The Self-Taught Philosopher ), written by Ibn Tufayl in the twelfth century, was a philosophical novel.
- The Stranger – Albert Camus
- Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky
- The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky
- The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka
- The Trial –Franz Kafka
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra – Friedrich Nietzsche
- 1984 – George Orwell
- The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
A book that is revered as one of the greatest works of philosophical literature is Albert Camus’ The Stranger. This is a tale of a man’s apathy and lack of care towards his mother’s death, to then being drawn into senseless murder and the events that ensue. The Strangeris a stark and chilling inquiry into human existence. The narrative is an explor...
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s masterpiece is a dark and fascinating examination of human morality. Crime and Punishment follows Raskolnikov, a former law student, who is intelligent and talented but lives in extreme poverty. He consciously decides to commit murder through convincing himself it is morally justifiable. This is the first part of the novel. The ...
Dostoevsky makes the list again with his final novel, The Brothers Karamazov. It is an ardent and epic philosophical novel, which follows the character Fyodor Karamazov and his three sons, Aloysha, Dmitri and Ivan. The story is a deeply profound and intense discussion of important philosophical facets of society. This discussion is a passionate stu...
Another author that features twice on this list is Franz Kafka. He is generally considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century literature. His works are heavily expressive of existential philosophy and can often be quite dark and unsettling. The Metamorphosis is perhaps the starkest example of this. One morning, Gregor Samsa awa...
Many of Kafka’s novels express similar themes, and this is glaringly evident in his unfinished story The Trial. The protagonist, Joseph K., is suddenly and randomly arrested and put on trial. The character does not know what he has been accused of and what he is on trial for. Kafka never reveals this to the reader either. Joseph K. becomes consumed...
We cannot talk about philosophical novels without considering Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It is a distinctly philosophically centred novel and begins with a discussion of a conflicting set of ideas between Friedrich Nietzsche and Parmenides. The degree of the ‘lightness’ and the ‘weight’ of our existence is the overriding con...
Friedrich Nietzscheis perhaps one of the most well-known and influential philosophers of the modern world. He is indeed first and foremost a philosopher and wrote many complex and dense works, but he is often literary and dramatic in his style. We can see this in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, a narrative chronicling the preaching and travelling of Zarath...
This classic dystopian story of a brutal totalitarian regime is an immensely important literary work. 1984 tells the tale of one of the three totalitarian states, Oceania, where the whole population are numbly obedient to its mysterious leader – Big Brother. The Thought Police survey the streets to ensure that the people are adhering to the party’s...
Oscar Wilde’s only novel is an ominous story of the consequences of indulging in lust and vice. Dorian Gray is a young man who is considered by those he meets to be extremely beautiful. Fascination over Dorian begins when he has his portrait painted by Basil Hallward who discusses the painting with his unscrupulous friend Henry Wotton. Dorian is th...
Philosophical fiction includes the novel of ideas, which can also fall under the genre of science fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, and bildungsroman. There is no universally accepted definition of philosophical fiction, but a sampling of notable works can help to outline its history.
Nov 12, 2019 · The concept of fiction gives rise to a number of intriguing and complex philosophical issues, and the philosophy of fiction has now become an acknowledged part of mainstream philosophy, with a history that goes back at least to the early debates about the role of poets and dramatists found in the works of Aristotle and Plato.
Jan 20, 2011 · Philosophy is concerned with the general and abstract; literature with the specific and particular. Philosophy dispels illusions; literature creates them.
