Explore the universe of Frank Herbert’s Dune in all its philosophical richness
“He who controls the spice controls the universe.” Frank Herbert’s Dune saga is the epic story of Paul, son of Duke Leto Atreides, and heir to the massive fortune promised by the desert planet Arrakis and its vast reservoirs of a drug called “spice.” To control the spice, Paul and his mother Jessica, a devotee of the pseudo-religious Bene Gesserit order, must find their place in the culture of the desert-dwelling Fremen of Arrakis. Paul must contend with both the devious rival House Harkonnen and the gargantuan desert sandworms—the source of the spice. The future of the Imperium depends upon one young man who will need to lead a new jihad to control the universe.
Dune and Philosophy recruits 23 philosophers to sift wisdom from Frank Herbert’s Duniverse, including the first of an expected series of films following Paul “Muad’Dib” Atreides and his descendants, captivatingly brought to the big screen by Denis Villeneuve in 2021. Part of the New Wave of science fiction of the 60s and 70s, Dune is characterized by literary experimentation with shifting styles, differing narrative points of view, and with the “psychedelic” culture of the period. In Dune, the long-term strategies and intricate plots of warring Great Houses are driven not just by Heighliner spacecraft and lasguns, but also by mind-expanding drugs, psychic powers, dystopian themes, race memories, and martial arts allowing control of the mind and the body. Substantial yet accessible chapters address philosophical questions including:
- Is it morally right to create a savior?
- Would interplanetary travel change human nature?
- What is the deeper meaning of desert ecologies?
- In conflict, how can you stay light years ahead of your opponents?
- Are there some drugs we would want to be addicted to?
- Does history repeat itself?
Tens of thousands of years into an intergalactic future, can humans endure or will we sacrifice what is most important in our humanity for power, glory, religion and of course, the control of the spice? Dune and Philosophy sets an intellectual course through sand and stars to find out.
Kevin S. Decker is Professor of Philosophy at Eastern Washington University. He is the author of Who is Who? The Philosophy of Doctor Who, co-editor (with Jason T. Eberl) of The Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy and The Ultimate Star Trek and Philosophy, and editor or co-editor of eight other anthologies of popular culture and philosophy.
Contributors: Navigators, Mentats, Fremen and Bene Gesserit
Introduction: “He Who Controls the Spice Controls the Universe”
A Brief Dune Series Timeline
Songs of Muad’Dib: Culture and Religion in Dune
1. Liberating Women’s Bodies: FeministPhilosophy and the Bene Gesserit ofDune
2. What do Zendaya’s Blue Eyes Really Mean?
3. The Golden Path and Multicultural Meanings of Life
4. Messiahs, Jihads and GodEmperors: Should Humanity Just Give up Religion?
5. (Re)defining Masculinity and Femininity in Villeneuve’s Dune
Arrakis Awakening:Science and Ecology in Dune
6. Spiritual Realm Adaptation: Arrakeen Spice, Terrestrial Psychedelics, and Technique
7. Thinking like a Desert: Environmental Philosophy and Dune
8. Humans, Machines and an Ethics for Technology in Dune
The Wisdom of Muad’Dib: Mind, Memory and Interpretation in Dune
9. “Thou Shalt Make a Human Mind in the Likeness of a Machine”: Imitation, Thinking Machines, and Mentats
Tomi Kokkonen,IlmariHirvonen, and Matti Mäkikangas
10. Herbert’s Gholas: Mystical Legends and Scientific Inspiration
11. Psychological Expanses of Dune:Indigenous Philosophy, Americana, and Existentialism
12. “Thatched Cottages at Cordeville”: Hegel, Heidegger, and the Death of Art in Dune
The Lens of Time : Freedom, History and Evil in Dune
13.Should the Bene GesseritBe in Charge?
14. Prisoners of Prophecy: Freedom and Foreknowledge in the Dune Series
15. Time versus History: A ConflictCentral to Herbert’s Dune
The Humanity of Muad’Dib: Morality and Ethics in Dune
16. SecherNbiw and the Child’s Right to an Open Future
17. The Spice of Life: Hedonism and Nozick in the Dune Universe
18. “Less Than a God, More than a Man”: Is It Morally Wrong to Make a KwisatzHaderach?
19. That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Shai-Hulud: Self-Overcoming in Nietzsche, Hinduism, and Dune
Lessons of the Great Revolt: Politics and War in Dune
20. The God Emperor and the Tyrant: The Political Theology of Frank Herbert’s Dune Saga
21. Lessons from Islamic Philosophy on the Politics of Paul Atreides
GalipcanAltinkaya and Mehmet Kuyurtar
22. Why Settle for Hobbes’ Sovereign When You Could Have a God Emperor?
23. The Mind at War: Conflict and Cognition in Frank Herbert’s Dune
Other versions by this Author