Existentialism in Philip Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Abstract

This study scrutinizes existential themes in Philip Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968) that focus on the impotence of man and his suffering, living in a world devoid of apprehension. The study argues that Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? presents an existential philosophy as it conglomerates different important canons of existentialism, including individualism, importance of choice, absurdity, despair, alienation, death, individual freedom, and the perception that existence precedes essence. The methodology applied in this study is qualitative-descriptive. The study is significant as it links literature with philosophy. The purpose of the study is to reveal prominent configurations of existentialism in Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? that are omnipresent across its tapestry. As for the findings, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? involves an intricate mesh of the philosophical gospels of existentialism that raise questions about existence and the human condition.