Philosophical accents in Stanisław Lem’s work Cover Image

Akcenty filozoficzne w prozie Stanisława Lema
Philosophical accents in Stanisław Lem’s work

Author(s): Jacek Sobota
Subject(s): Epistemology, Ontology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warmińsko-Mazurskiego w Olsztynie
Keywords: science fiction; epistemology; ontology; philosophy of chance; determinism; indeterminism;

Summary/Abstract: The year 2021 was proclaimed the year of Stanisław Lem in Poland, due to the hundredth anniversary of his birth. This is a good opportunity for some summaries. The article is an attempt to outline some philosophical aspects of Lem’s science fiction literature. First of all, the epistemological issues finds its interesting development in the works of the author of The Invincible. The treatment of the subject of inter-civilization contact in such books as Eden or Solaris is considered to be Lem’s original contribution to the ideological output of science fiction literature in the world. In other hand, an ontological issues are linked in Lem’s work with a specifically understood “philosophy of fortuity” – the genealogy of which can be found in the meanders of the writer’s biography. The world in his novels (Investigation, Katar) works according to the principles of indeterminism, which find their confirmation in contemporary philosophical and sociological concepts.

  • Issue Year: 2022
  • Issue No: 28
  • Page Range: 145-163
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Polish