Isaac Asimov

I was reminded by reading the Isaac Asimov entry in Wikipedia that he "has works in every major category of the Dewey Decimal System except Philosophy." This time I was really struck by the fact that before I read Plato, before I read Godel, Escher Bach, before I had read much else at all in fact, Asimov had been my first real encounter with reading as way to play with ideas.

Much of Asimov's fiction had less developed characters, and sometimes less action, than the Platonic dialogs. Science fiction, thought experiment wedded to literary craft, has philosophy running through it. At least the good stuff does, I suppose that a standard shoot 'em with laser guns counts as science fiction as well, but that's not what the good doctor wrote. He wrote relatively unadorned experiments in thought. Not all the time, he is famous in part for the breadth of his output.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who was lead from Asimov to playing with ideas to philosophy. In a sense Asimov is a little like a low level drug dealer pushing a gateway drug to kids on the play ground. "Take a hit, first one's free", but then after its too late and you've got a serious habit, you find out that he never touched the stuff.