Representation Of Human Empathy In Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

Philip K.Dick(1928-1982)is an American science fiction giant,hailed by Fredric Jameson as “Shakespeare of Science Fiction”.His famous novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?(1968)(hereafter Androids)is another representation of his consistent human-humanoid theme.Androids has been studied from such themes as traditional humanism and empathy.By drawing on the theory of posthumanism,this thesis analyzes the novel's representation and questioning of the differentiation and superiority of human empathy in the posthuman time.Empathy is the ability to fully experience and resonate with others' emotion,which is regarded as the universal human nature by humanists.That is,lack of empathy is equal to lack of humanness,and devoid of the qualification to be the human.Hence,“empathy” has replaced “reason” as the boundary to distinguish and elevate humans from nonhumans in the posthuman time.Such an oppressive idea of humanism is criticized by the posthumanists,who question the objectivity,inclusiveness and reliability of empathy as the reductive representation of humanness.Neil Badmington emphasizes that to criticize humanism is not to overthrow it,but to present the inherent contradiction and to rethink humanity's multiplex symbiotic relationship in the universe.This thesis analyzes the novel's representation of human empathy in Androids from insincerity,ambiguity and unnaturalness.The first chapter analyzes the insincerity of human empathy.In the novel,human beings insist they have the innate ability of empathy that the androids lack,but the incomprehension in the solicitude between the protagonist Deckard and his wife,the profit-orientation in the association among neighbors and colleagues,and humans' indifference even cruelty in the interest to animals,all these reflect the insincerity of human empathy.The second chapter analyzes the ambiguity of human empathy.Traditional humanists hold that the empathy boundary to distinguish the human from nonhumans is standard and clear.However,in the novel,the human males cannot deny their empathy to the female androids who are not included into empathy objects.Equally ambiguously,when the female androids “become” the objects of human empathy that should be protected,they are still doomed to be “retired” as machines;what's more,the disabled humans who should be the empathy subject are deprived of their human rights and become the target of discrimination.So,human empathy is ambiguous for its claim about empathetic objects,subject-object relationship,and empathetic subjects.The third chapter analyzes the unnaturalness of human empathy.For humanists,empathy is “the natural law” to establish human's natural supremacy.However,in the novel,the artificial traces are exposed in people's empathetic fusion experience via empathy box,the unreliable empathetic test by Voigt-Kampff scale and the utilitarian animal fetish in the public opinion in post-war time,all of which reveals that human empathy is not “born” but “made”.In Androids,human beings' hunting for the escaped androids which is meant to maintain empathy to be the unique human attribute turns out to expose the inherent contradiction of “humanness”.By representing such a human empathy,Philip Dick deconstructs empathy as the boundary between humans and nonhumans,hence triggering a rethinking of anthropocentrism,and at the same time appeals to a richer humanity in the posthuman time to see ourselves as part of an organic universe,thus enriching humanism.