Asimov's Foundation and Philosophy

by Joshua Heter (Editor), Josef Thomas Simpson (Editor)

Isaac Asimov’s Foundation is the most influential science-fiction epic of all time. Published as a series of books and short stories from the 1940s to the 1980s, the series has impacted most subsequent science fiction, and also influenced sciences like sociology, statistics, and psychology. The story has now been made into a highly acclaimed TV serial (Foundation), on Apple TV, the second season now shooting in Prague.
The story begins 45,000 years in the future, and spans centuries in which a vast and successful interstellar human empire is unknowingly headed for total collapse. Using an advanced mathematical technique called psycho-history, a brilliant scientist, Hari Seldon, predicts the collapse and establishes a “foundation” to bring about the resurrection of human civilization many generations in the future.
Asimov’s Foundation and Philosophy is a collection of twenty-four chapter by philosophers exploring the philosophical issues and puzzles raised by this epic story. Topics include whether one individual can make a big difference in history, the ethics of manipulating large populations of people to bring about a desirable future result, the Dao of non-action, the impact of education on future generations, whether human affairs are governed by predictable cycles, whether attempts to plan for the future must be thwarted by free will, the futility of empire-building, the ethics of cloning human beings, and the use of logic in analyzing human behavior.

Joshua Heter, who teaches philosophy at Jefferson College, Missouri, is co-editor of Better Call Saul and I Think Therefore I Scam (2022).

Josef Thomas Simpson is an academic coach and part-time lecturer. He contributed chapters to Westworld and Mind Equals Blown (2019) and Orphan Black and Grand Theft DNA (2016).

Genres: Philosophy

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 30, 2023

Reviews

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was a budding social science grad student, I learned that Asimov's "Foundation" series was impetus for many young nerds of the previous generation to enter fields like Economics and Poli-Sci. The reason? At the heart of the story is a fictional discipline called Psycho-history, a mathematical field that's premised on the idea that [while one can't reliably forecast what an individual (or even small groups) will do,] given a large enough population one can make grand over-arching predictions about what will happen to society as a whole. It's an idea that Asimov drew from his education in Chemistry, a field where one couldn't say much about individual molecules but you could accurately model collective parameters (e.g. temperature.) It turns out that humans and their interactions are more complicated than gas molecules and so Psycho-history only works as a powerful plot device (a fact that Asimov discovered himself, supposedly driving mid-course corrections in the limited space he had to make them.) Anyhow, the idea that one might predict the unfolding of societal, economic, and international events was a powerful scholarly aphrodisiac for individuals who might otherwise have dismissed study of the social world as hopelessly and absurdly chaotic.

With that background generating curiosity and having read a number of Asimov's books, I was eager to investigate this book that explores the philosophic underpinnings of Asimov's fictional world. I was not disappointed. The imaginative "Foundation" series of books provides plenty of situations and ideas to which one can apply the lens of philosophy, from the limitations of reason and symbolic logic as tools to solve humanity's problems to the morality of manipulation and questions of transparency that follow from it. This anthology of essays considers questions of mind, logic, morality, free will, identity, and existence, as well as various ideas from the Philosophies of History, Religion, and Science. The twenty-one essays are grouped into six parts by philosophic subdiscipline.

There are so many of these "pop culture meets philosophy" books out there, but I think this one does better than most because Asimov's creative mind really offered such a rich assortment of ideas upon which to reflect.

[Angie Boyter · Rating 4 out of 5]

4+
I became enchanted with Asimov’s Foundation series as a young teen and enjoyed both the story and the intriguing idea of psychohistory. Later in college I also enjoyed my Introduction to Philosophy course. This book presents a delightful exploration of the philosophical ideas in the Foundation series, a real treat for nerds like me!
Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics have penetrated a much wider audience than simply readers of Asimov, and I have seen them included in serious discussions of the future of artificial intelligence, but the Foundation series is relevant to a number of other philosophical topics, too, like consciousness, faith, morality, free will, and determinism, and the authors of the essays all have street creds in those fields. They also are clearly Asimov fans as well and do an excellent job of relating Asimov’s work to the philosophical topic at hand; there are many references to the work of leading philosophers like Plato, Hume, Locke, Rawls, and many more. Given Asimov’s intellect and encyclopedic knowledge (even without the Galactic Encyclopedia) and the relevance of some of the ideas and situations in the books to the ideas of philosophers cited, I strongly suspect that he was fully aware of those works. Asimov himself acknowledged that Gibbons’ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire inspired him to write the Foundation series, but the parallels with some part of Plato’s Republic seem too close to be accidental. Most of the essayists also do a big favor to readers like me who have not read the books in many years by including some description of the stories in question. Each major section of the book begins with a relevant quote from Foundation, like “Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.”
Some of the essays also discuss the TV series adapted from the Foundation series, especially when it departs from the original work.
Like all books composed of essays, the appeal of individual essays will vary. I found a couple of them a bit too academic in tone, but most were at a level that thoughtful Asimov readers could enjoy and ponder. They also inspired me to go back and reread the Foundation series. I expect to enjoy it as much as I did the first time but also suspect I will be musing more thoughtfully about many of the philosophical ideas included. I may even add some of the philosophical works to my reading list.
I received an advance review copy of this book from Edelweiss and the publisher.

[Jeff A · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a very fun read, but my caveat would be -- "for those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like."

This book is a pretty niche undertaking, but if you fit the niche, you are likely to enjoy it. It is a collection of essays on various philosophical topics. The essay topics are wideranging but are all framed in terms of a discussion of Isaac Asimov's Foundation stories. It feels sort of like a party game, or the last assignment of a philosophy course from some cool professor.

In order to appreciate the book, the reader ought to be familiar with Foundation, at least the original trilogy. If you've never heard of Hari Seldon, Trantor, or the Mule, you will probably not find the read worthwhile. Some of the essays also touch on the later sequel novels, the prequel stories, and even the recent Apple+ series, but you don't really need to be a superfan to appreciate the book.