Science fiction can sometimes seem to be just good, frivolous entertainment. In fact, the origins of science fiction can be traced back to early modern philosophy, when philosophers used storytelling that imagined alternative worlds and beings in order to make better sense of the scientific revolution and the religious and political upheaval that accompanied it. Even today, science fiction stories are often elaborate thought experiments – a useful philosophical device - bringing ideas to life and having an impact on our imagination and thought that dry, analytic essay writing isn’t capable of, writes Lisa Walters.   

While science fiction fans watching Dune or Star Wars may not consider such activities as philosophical, the genre of science fiction can trace its origins to the discipline of philosophy.

Some of the earliest science fiction authors (who wrote sci fi before such a label existed) were well-known philosophers. The Renaissance saw the rise of what we now refer to as science fiction; philosophers such as Francis Bacon, Johannes Kepler, and Margaret Cavendish wrote fictional stories about their philosophical and scientific ideas.