Between Literature and Science: Poe, Lem, and Explorations in Aesthetics, Cognitive Science, and Literary Knowledge

This volume examines the true intellectual scope of Edgar Allan Poe and Stanislaw Lem. The book provides a basis for a discussion of Lem’s critique of scientific reductionalism and futurological forecasts. Drawing on the author’s interviews with Lem, as well as analysis of his works, Lem’s scenarios involving computers capable of creative acts are discussed, as are their socio-cultural implications. The author aims to show that Poe and Lem propose far-reaching hypotheses in aesthetics, epistemology, coginative science, philosophy of science, literary studies, and pragmatics as well as in cosmology, artificial intellegence, and futureology.