On Mon, 2014-09-08 at 11:37 +0200, Dave Long wrote: > (to what degree do the philosophers and the priests differ from the > fiction writers?)
Please correct me if you think I am wrong, but Sci Fi writers ( to the extent that I have read scifi in recent decades) generally do not deal in questions of morality except in terms of some power or entity who is a threat to humanity or something that restricts rights. Philosophers and priests tend to address morality. Morality is generally a restriction of rights. Sci Fi can be taken as one type of literary output from societies where science and technology have profoundly influenced the lives of people in those societies. The creation of science fiction (as opposed to pure fiction) I believe has occurred only in some societies. If the "mood" of SciFi output has changed over many decades from positive to negative, it could possibly indicate a change of attitude about the future in that society. But this would be a sociological judgement, unless I am mistaken. Strictly speaking I don't think the societal issues that Sci Fi writers deal with coincide with the issues that priests and philosophers deal with. The common areas are restricted to where science has affected morality - and to that extent science and morality have come into conflict. I am not sure if Sci Fi writers have taken sides on these issues. Once again, please correct me if you think I am wrong. The "science" (if that is what it is) of sociology came up only because of the need to study non western societies and document the differences between the "normal" society of the sociologist with the exotic "other" society. Not a lot of effort was expended in "observing" western societies from the outside because all sociologists were from within western societies and were unable or unwilling to comment on western societies that funded their work and left it to the priests, philosophers and more recently Sci Fi writers. But surely it would have to be sociologists, more than any other people who would be able to comment with authority and knowledge on all societies and express some opinion on features of societies that may be negative or positive. If they don't know who would? shiv
