Philosophical novel

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Philosophical novels are works of fiction in which a significant proportion of the novel is devoted to a discussion of the sort of questions normally addressed in discursive philosophy. These might include: the function and role of society; the purpose of life; ethics or morals; the role of art in human lives; and, the role of experience or reason in the development of knowledge. Philosophical novels would include the so-called novel of ideas, a significant proportion of science fiction, utopian/dystopian novels and Bildungsroman.

There is no universally acceptable definition of the philosophical novel, but certain novels would be of key importance in its history. Voltaire's Candide (1759) is the first clear example in literary history. Thomas Carlyle's Sartor Resartus, Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, and Tolstoy's War and Peace are all canonical examples of the philosophical novel. Later examples would include such among the novels of Aldous Huxley as After Many a Summer and Island, as well as novels by Iris Murdoch and Anthony Burgess.

Novels that might qualify as philosophical novels in terms of subject matter but which proceed by non-discursive means (such as allegory) would be excluded. Richard Adams's Watership Down, for example, would qualify as having social structures as its subject matter but would be excluded on the grounds that the exploration of these subjects is entirely inferred rather than being the subject of overt discussion or debate.