Philip K. Dick and Philosophy: Do Androids Have Kindred Spirits?

Popular Culture and Philosophy #63

by D.E. Wittkower

Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) is the giant imagination behind so much recent popular culture—both movies directly based on his writings, such as Blade Runner (based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall, Minority Report, and The Adjustment Bureau plus cult favorites such as A Scanner Darkly, Imposter, Next, Screamers, and Paycheck and works revealing his powerful influence, such as The Matrix and Inception. With the much anticipated forthcoming publication in 2011 of volume 1 of Exegesis, his journal of spiritual visions and paranoic investigations, Dick is fast becoming a major influence in the world of popular spirituality and occult thinking.

In Philip K. Dick and Philosophy: Who Adjusts the Adjustment Bureau?, twenty Dick fans and professional thinkers confront the fascinating and frightening ideas raised by Dick’s mind-blowing fantasies. Is there an alien world behind the everyday reality we experience? If androids can pass as human, should they be given the same consideration as humans? Do psychotics have insights into a mystical reality? Would knowledge of the future free us or enslave us? This volume will also include Dick's short story "Adjustment Team," on which The Adjustment Bureau is based.

Philip K. Dick and Philosophy explores the ideas of Philip K. Dick in the same way that he did: with an earnest desire to understand the truth of the world, but without falsely equating earnestness with a dry seriousness. Dick’s work was replete with whimsical and absurdist presentations of the greatest challenges to reason and to humanity—paradox, futility, paranoia, and failure—and even at his darkest times he was able to keep some perspective and humor, as for example in choosing to name himself ‘Horselover Fat’ in VALIS at the same time as he relates his personal religious epiphanies, crises, and delusions. With the same earnest whimsy, we approach Philip K. Dick as a philosopher like ourselves—one who wrote almost entirely in thought-experiments and semi-fictional world-building, but who engaged with many of the greatest questions of philosophy throughout the Euro-American tradition.

Philip K. Dick and Philosophy has much to offer for both serious fans who have read many of his novels and stories, and for those who may have just recently learned his name, and realized that his work has been the inspiration for several well-known and thought-provoking films. Most chapters start with one or more of the movies based on Dick’s writing. From here, the authors delve deeper into the issues by bringing in philosophers' perspectives and by bringing in Dick’s written work. The book invites the reader with a casual familiarity with Dick to get to know his work, and invites the reader with little familiarity with philosophy to learn more. At the same time, we have new perspectives and challenging connections and interpretations for even the most hard-core Dick fans, even though we never speak to “insiders” only.

To maximize public interest, the book prominently addresses the most widely-known films, as well as those with the most significant fan followings: Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Adjustment Bureau. Along with these “big five” films, a few chapters address his last novels, especially VALIS, which have a significant cult following of their own. There are also chapters which address short stories and novels which are currently planned for adaptation: Radio Free Albemuth (film completed, awaiting distribution), The Man in the High Castle (in development by Ridley Scott for BBC mini-series), and “King of the Elves” (Disney, planned for release in 2012).

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Essays, Pop Culture, Biography, Cultural, Technology

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 17, 2011

About the author

D.E. Wittkower received a Ph.D in Philosophy from Vanderbilt University in 2006. His training concentrated on German philosophy and the history of value theory (ethics, aesthetics, social/political philosophy), and his research has concentrated primarily on issues of ethics, technology, and political philosophy. Prior to accepting the position of Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Old Dominion University, he taught at Coastal Carolina University, Sweet Briar College, Virginia Tech, University of Missouri - St. Louis, and University of Maine - Orono.

He is contributing editor of Facebook and Philosophy (Open Court, in press), Mr. Monk and Philosophy (Open Court, 2010), and iPod and Philosophy (Open Court, 2008); contributor to Applying Care Ethics to Business (Springer, forthcoming 2011), Audiobooks, Literature, and Sound Studies (Routledge, forthcoming 2011), Encyclopedia of Social Networking (SAGE, forthcoming 2010), Putting Knowledge to Work and Letting Information Play (Center for Digital Discourse and Culture, forthcoming 2010), The Psychology of Facebook (Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, forthcoming 2010), Anime and Philosophy (Open Court, 2010), Ethical Issues in E-Business (IGI Global, 2010), and Radiohead and Philosophy (Open Court, 2009); and author of articles appearing in Social Identities and Fast Capitalism.

Reviews

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

First off it is necessary to state that i am already a huge PKD fan so i don't know how this book would read if i wasn't already familiar with most of the novels and stories discussed. If you have not read a lot of Dick's writing (and plan on it) you may not want to start this until you've read at least his best works, it does have some things that could be considered spoilers. Whenever i came across the details of a book i had not read, i would just skip a couple paragraphs until it stopped giving away vital plot info. The book does seem to try to work for people who are not big Philip K Dick fans by focusing on the movies a great deal. Even though it does dissect the philosophical ideas behind Blade Runner, Total Recall, The Adjustment Bureau, and A Scanner Darkly a whole lot, it wasn't a problem because Dick's stories have enough depth that each contributor was able to use some of the same stories/ideas but still make different points about them. If you are not interested in the studying of Philip K Dick as a philosopher and are interested in learning about the ideas of the great philosophers of the past (which is what the one negative reviewer on amazon was looking for)then this book probably isn't the right thing for you. I have always been skeptical about the books that relate pop culture and philosophy, some of the topics of these books seem like the writers would have to almost add philosophical ideas that were not even purposefully put in by the creator. I was immediately attracted to this book because i knew that the ideas were there intentionally waiting to be elaborated on by people like these contributors. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and it has made me want to reread a few of the books now that i have a clearer understanding of them.

I would recommend that all of the movies and the PKD stories they were based on be watched/read before reading this book. The novels The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Ubik, Valis, Counter-clock World, Martian Time-slip, Time Out of Joint, and The Man in the High Castle are also pretty necessary beforehand.

The two stories that PKD wrote included were a nice surprise, both were entertaining and clever.
The book was pretty much exactly what i had imagined it would be with some extras. I know that there is still so much more of his material that can be treated in this manner so I would love to see another book like this covering more.

[Adam Nicolai · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll preface this review by saying I'm not a philosopher in the strictest sense: I never studied it in school beyond incidental exposure and a single 101 class, and I'm certainly not a professor. But I don't think you need to be to enjoy Philip K. Dick and Philosophy. There are a lot of cool ideas that dovetail off of those presented in Dick's work and the movies based off of them (after reading Ethan Mills' chapter "Hollywood Doesn't Know Dick" I am careful to draw that distinction!), so if you enjoy either, you'll probably enjoy the book as much as I did.

I did find myself skipping a chapter here and there ("Yes, I get it, I can't prove the world is real - but I only have a 30 minute lunch break, folks, let's get to something new!") but the vast majority of the essays here are novel, interesting, and thought-provoking. I particularly enjoyed "Just Who And How Many Are You?" by Richard Feist, which, in part, explores a study looking at the duality of the human brain. The ramifications of this study are fascinating. The two sides of your brain are far more independent than you probably realize. Different enough to bring up the question: Are you actually two people or one person?

The book delves deeply into the ideas presented in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (or "Bladerunner" as we Hollywood Luddites may think of it); by the end of the book I was pretty well convinced that we probably ARE all robots, but that I really didn't mind.

Overall, it's well worth your time and nicely segmented, so if you do get philosophy overload but are still enjoying yourself, it's no big deal to put it down for a couple weeks and pick it up when your brain is ready for another thrashing. If you enjoy questioning the nature of reality, wish you'd looked a bit more into philosophy when you'd actually had time in your life to do so, or enjoyed any of the ideas presented by Philip K. Dick in his novels or the movies based off them, do yourself a favor and check it out. It's a cool read.

[Donna Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

You might think you’re familiar with Philip K. Dick and his works, but if you’ve only seen the movies, you may not know Dick.

Philip K. Dick and Philosophy: Do Androids Have Kindred Spirits? (Open Court), edited by D.E. Wittkower is a cool collection of essays by over 30 academics (or some might call them dreamers). Includes delicacies from Wittkower as the moral and metaphysical minutia of PKD’s works are explored. 1dick6

Others in the Popular Culture and Philosophy series include but are not limited to: Star Wars, Doctor Who, U2, Buffy, The Matrix, The Walking Dead, Monty Python, Soccer, Sherlock Holmes, Breaking Bad, South Park, Facebook, Dexter, Seinfeld, Harry Potter, Johnny Cash, and The Simpsons.

Hollywood loves Dick.
Ever watched Bladerunner?
Minority Report?
Total Recall?
A Scanner Darkly?
The Adjustment Bureau?
Paycheck?
Screamers?
All Dick, but they aren’t. They’re adaptations and wow, are they different.

Hollywood loves heroes.
Heroes that prevail over impossible odds.
Who save the day in some way.
Make the right choices, their free will protecting humanity.

Philip K. Dick didn’t do heroes. He found free will improbable, at best.
His characters were often insignificant men in crumpled suits with crumpled hopes and crumpled dreams living crumpled lives. Hard to picture Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, or Arnold Schwarzenegger as those characters.

PKD may have focused on persecution, paranoia, empathy, deception, stigma, and control, but believed humans, even broken or bent ones sometimes do the right thing.

Iconoclastically slapping at conformity, PKD built on the work of those who came before him (depending on what you believe about time): Campbell, Heinlein, Clarke, Bradbury, Asimov, del Rey, Brackett, van Vogt, Hubbard, Orwell, Kornbluth, Huxley, Simak, etc.

Authentic relationships shouldn’t be replaced by digital devices or human and animal surrogates.

PKD realized technology can be valuable and enjoyable, unless we submit to it and anaesthetize ourselves with it.

I find his works, on page and screen both pleasurable and disturbing.

May his legacy mean something.

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” ~Philip K. Dick

[Gregg Wingo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good introduction into the works of Philip K. Dick. The book does not require familiarity with his written work but can be read by those who have run into his work due to Hollywood's love of Dick's ideas which have been featured in blockbuster versions such as Bladerunner, Total Recall, Minority Report, The Adjustment Bureau, and Next.

As stated by Fredric Jameson, Dick is perhaps the greatest science fiction writer of all time and, unfortunately, due to the ghettoized nature of the genre during his active period a prolific but sloppy author. His brilliance lies in his integration of philosophy into good storytelling. The contributing authors in this book explore the direct connection between Dick and the great thinkers of philosophy from Plato to the postmodernists. It is clear in retrospect why Dick was hugely popular among the French intelligentsia while largely ignored in American literary circles of the 50s, 60s, and 70s like most of his SF colleagues.

As a bonus the book also contains two of Dick's early short stories which have been out of print since the 1950s.

[David Agranoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philip K. Dick and Philosophy Do Androids have Kindred Spirits Edited by D.E.Wittkower

I have mixed feelings about this book. It is in the popular culture and philosophy series. I think every popular TV show has one. My first experience was with The Man in The High Castle edition, we had one of the co-editors on a panel episode about Man in the High Castle. Like that book, The highs are very high, and the lows are super low. I have respect for editor D.E. Wittkower who I interviewed on background for a chapter of Unfinished PKD.

In the 350 pages, there are 30 or so essays and two Philip K. Dick short stories. I would say maybe 15 of the essays are valuable. The ones that are not are written by academics who frustratingly write about the movies based on PKD stuff and at best have read the novels or stories related to such novels. That’s it.

The ones that are valuable are written by researchers who have read everything and can for example go deep on Solar Lottery. The 10th Ben Saunders essay “How to Build a Democracy that Doesn’t fall apart Two Hundred Years Later” is more than a title that plays with one of Phil’s deep-cut essay titles. It is a really valuable look at Solar Lottery, but highlights understanding of the entire PKD canon which for a nerd like me is super valuable. This essay was enough to justify the book and the money I spent.

I had a similar reaction to Andrew Butler’s excellent essay “If the Universe Isn’t Real How Should We Treat Other People.” This essay did an excellent job of looking at the entire PKD catalog and the implications of his What is Reality questioning.

Major props to Wittkower D.E. for Time in Unfixed Are You, a totally backward essay on Counter clock world. “.Precog a are you”

I liked the little PKD humor like calling the About the authors “Skin Jobs.” There are plenty of essays that you will end up skipping. Adjustment Bureau was the most recently released movie so it will feel like there is way too much focus on that one- because there absolutely is. The good is good enough to put it on your shelf if you are a serious Dickhead.

[Scott Holstad · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, I have to make a public admission and state that I love Philip K. Dick and have every book he ever published, at least every book publicly available, meaning over 40 or thereabouts. Some aren't the best, while others are completely brilliant and mind blowing. Others are wildly above average, but virtually all make you think about a lot of things, like reality and what is it exactly, and what is our reality, and is it indeed reality. I love David Weber's military sci fi novels and think he's the best military sci fi writer of all time, but I think Dick is the best overall sci fi writer of all time and perhaps one of the best 20th century writers completely, sadly overlooked by most, but also one of the best American philosophers of the 20th century as well, also sadly overlooked, especially when compared to the French and other European philosophers of the same century.

I have another (sad) admission to make. I was going to write a small review, but in reading over the book's official marketing blurb on Goodreads and other sites, I've come to believe I can't really do better than what the author's publishing/marketing team did for this book, so I'm going to quote a few short paragraphs, as I doubt I can improve on them. Forgive me. Credit to the book's author and publisher:

"Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick is the giant imagination behind so much recent popular culture—, both movies directly based on his writings, such as Blade Runner (based on the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"), Total Recall, Minority Report, and The Adjustment Bureau, plus cult favorites such as A Scanner Darkly, Imposter, Next, Screamers, and Paycheck, and works revealing his powerful influence, such as The Matrix and Inception. [Additionally, The Man In The High Castle, Amazon's highest watched series of all time, from what I understand, is based on Dick's award winning novel by the same name.] With the ... publication in 2011 of volume 1 of Exegesis, his journal of spiritual visions and paranoic investigations, Dick [has] fast become a major influence in the world of popular spirituality and occult thinking.

In Philip K. Dick and Philosophy: Who Adjusts the Adjustment Bureau?, twenty Dick fans and professional thinkers confront the fascinating and frightening ideas raised by Dick’s mind-blowing fantasies. Is there an alien world behind the everyday reality we experience? If androids can pass as human, should they be given the same consideration as humans? Do psychotics have insights into a mystical reality? Would knowledge of the future free us or enslave us? This volume ... also includes Dick's short story "Adjustment Team," on which The Adjustment Bureau is based.

Philip K. Dick and Philosophy explores the ideas of Philip K. Dick in the same way that he did: with an earnest desire to understand the truth of the world, but without falsely equating earnestness with a dry seriousness. Dick’s work was replete with whimsical and absurdist presentations of the greatest challenges to reason and to humanity—, paradox, futility, paranoia, and failure, —and even at his darkest times he was able to keep some perspective and humor, as for example in choosing to name himself ‘Horselover Fat in VALIS at the same time as he relates his personal religious epiphanies, crises, and delusions. With the same earnest whimsy, we approach Philip K. Dick as a philosopher, like ourselves—, one who wrote almost entirely in thought-experiments and semi-fictional world-building, but who engaged with many of the greatest questions of philosophy throughout the Euro-American tradition."

So, there you have it. The first few paragraphs of the book's description and a good description of what the book is about. It's truly an excellent book with mostly very good chapters/essays that, like Dick's work, leave one thinking about what is and what could be. Unfortunately, not every essay is consistently strong. Thus, the four star review rather than five. Still, a must have book for any Dick fan, and strongly, strongly recommended for any fan of pop culture, sci fi, 20th century philosophy, existentialism (to a degree), and other interested parties. I don't believe and certainly hope you won't be disappointed. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found the book quite stimulating.

[Bob Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book. First its one of a series of 64 (so far) of books relating various popular culture figures to philosophy. Some of the other subjects are singers, i.e., Johnny Cash The Beatles, Pink Floyd, some are from movies and television, i,e., The Matrix, Dexter, Seinfeld, SpongeBob and even video games, i.e., Halo and Warcraft. The book is comprised of thirty three short essays from various authors selecting pieces of PKD's writings and the movies based on his ideas. The writings vary in tone and depth. There are comparisons to Nietzsche, Heidegger, Plato and other giants in the field of philosophy. The essays very in depth and analysis of the ideas expressed in PDK's work.
I've been a fan of PKD, which has meant "seen the movies". The first essays compared his writings to the movies and I was very surprised to the extent they differ. That was enough to spur me to read more of the essays and begin to get some comprehension of the quantities of his writing and the breath of this thoughts. One of the essays was especially amusing. The book's editor wrote a short essay where the sentences are written backward to express PDK's concept of precognition. Very amusing and effective!
This book really awakened me to the world of PDK. The book ends with two of his short stories which was a great way to end it. It leaves you wanting to read more of him and that's how it should be. (And more of this series, if the rest are done so well!)

[Gordon Burroughs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad that I have already read most of the books and short stories discussed in the essays, as, even with the brief synopsis the author's of each individual essay gives, you'll miss some of the points that they raise. I was disappointed that the film version of "Minority Report" featured a bit more heavily than the original short story, which I felt had a much more satisfying conclusion. All in all, the essays did well in conveying the respective issues or morality, reality, and humanity that was at the heart of many of Dick's works.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gives a good range of philosophical perspectives from a number of contributors and provoked me to watch The Adjustment Bureau for the first time, re-read PKD's stories and even look up some philosophers! PKD clearly an informed and worthy subject for such treatment. Don't know how a real philosopher would rate it: I found it challenging but very accessible and enjoyable. Would suggest that the stories are read first to avoid spoilers and ground the references.

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many books on philosophy, this one can make for heavy reading. Indeed, some chapters tend to such esoteric language and references to other philosophers that it’s rather slow going. But Mr. Dick was a man increasingly obsessed with the nature of reality, of man’s increasing reliance on machines and alienation from self, community and society and the difference, if any, between humans and androids.

His obsession caused the writers here to dive with obvious delight and wonder into his science fiction prose. His novels and short stories are dissected, reconstructed, probed and analyzed with the precision you expect from intellectuals.

Yet they are also keen to compare Mr. Dick’s literary output to their blockbuster cinematic offspring. While you would expect haughty disapproval about how broadly Mr. Dick’s works were adapted for the big screen, the authors of these essays eschew such facile criticism. They understand Hollywood’s need to render dense verbiage into smooth, easy-to-digest cinematic fare. They are willing to give Hollywood its due; in their comparisons between the written word and its visual translation, the film version doesn’t necessarily come off as the worse of the two.

You wonder why Mr. Dick’s works were chosen to be translated into film. Given their philosophical content, it makes about as much sense as turning Jean-Paul Sartre’s works into sitcoms. However, if nothing else, one hopes those films may give watchers a gentle nudge towards Mr. Dick’s extensive written oeuvre.

The book ends with two short stories by Dick, the latter displaying an unexpected wit and humor.

[James Piazza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philip K Dick and Philosophy discusses Dick's common themes like the nature of the self and of reality from the perspectives of Aristotle, Socrates, Descartes, Sartre, Kant, Hume, Heidegger, and Nietzsche, along with more contemporary thinkers, all in the context of both Dick's direct writings and of the film versions of his works, and all in plain and accessible language.

The essays are each surprisingly concise, making the text a breeze of a read. Though it's worth noting that many readers observed that the book is best-enjoyed AFTER the reader has familiarized themselves with Dick's body of work, (or at least seen the movies), as many plot points are revealed throughout the course of the text.

This title is #63 of the 100-volume series, Popular Culture and Philosophy, which includes similar cultural examinations of properties like Seinfeld, The Simpsons, and The Matrix.

I enjoyed it.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with most works of this type, some of the essays in this collection were clearly better than others. My favorite selection was Travis Patterson's chapter, "Lonely Wolves." It spoke most clearly to the alienation from society as the crux of not only Dick's novels but of the human condition. Discovering an identity outside of dominant culture and existing within that lone wolf mentality, a pack creature surviving away from the pack, is the path toward reality. However another layer to that, the consensus gentium of Dick's philosophy, is to, along the way, discover other lone wolves with an outlook that confirms your own deviant views. Needless to say, I enjoyed my deep dive into the literature and philosophy of Philip K. Dick. It altered my brain patterns in a good way.

[M. Apple · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a while to plow through this edited book. Not because the text was difficult to read, but because many of the authors repeated what previous authors had already written. Often I found myself wondering whether the analysis was truly “philosophical” as opposed to simply biographical, i.e., PDK’s well-known obsession with his dead twin sister. A psychological analysis in many respects makes more sense than a philosophical one. Still, it was fun to read how PDK’s knowledge of various religious texts and philosophers (especially Spinoza) influences his writing (particularly the VALIS trilogy and Exegesis).

[Debra Daniels-Zeller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of essays about Philip K. Dick's work were intriguing and it was interesting to see how Hollywood "adapted" Dick's stories to fit into the American Hollywood view of the world and always have to portray a "hero" characters with a solid hopeful type of ending. The philosophy here is deep and it's slow going for some of the essays, but for those who want a deep dive into the mind of Philip K. Dick, this is the book to read for sure.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the latest buddy read with my dad, and we both found it kind of disappointing. As a collection it lacked cohesion and structure, and a LOT of the essays felt like new professors phoning in a three page essay to get another publication under their belt for tenure.

BUT it was fun in that it provided structure for having a number of discussion around some of Dick's big ideas with my dad. We are both lifelong fans (my dad used to include VALIS quotes I the letters he wrote to me at college) though casually — there are a tone of his books I still have not read — a lot of the movies and books it had been so long since either of us had seen/read them that it made it hard to really engage with some of the finer details of these essays.

I will say my favorite essay of the bunch was "Matt Damon is a Vast Sinister Conspiracy" — which had a lot to say about pop culture and celebrity and parasocial relationships in a relatively short essay.

[Mike Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting read.