The philosopher at the end of the universe

I believe that science fiction has a lot to offer in making philosophical ideas more easily understood. The philosopher at the end of the universe is based on this idea. Mark Rowlands uses science fiction films to illustrate various ideas in philosophy, for instance The Matrix for Descartes thoughts about what is real. Some of it is a bit stretched, for instance the chapter on Nietzshe seems to suggest that Darth Vader should have subsumed his evil and written poetry instead. However, if you like watching sci-fi films then the book provides a useful link to ideas from philosophy .

Rowlands claims that the violent nature of a lot of the films makes them better for illustrating the concepts, and he recommends that you watch the films before reading the book. I didn't agree with either of these. I think he just likes watching this sort of film, and that Star Trek episodes would be as good, if not better. Also I wasn't convinced that he did a particularly good job of making philosophical ideas more accessible. It seemed to be the usual sort of philosophy with 'entertainment breaks' rather than combining the philosophy and discussion about the films into a consistent whole