Science And The Human Dilemma In Ian McEwan’s Novels

Ian McEwan is one of the most famous contemporary British novelists.His publications are prolific and he has won many domestic and international awards,including the Booker Prize."Science" has always been a subject of great concern to McEwan,despite the apparent transformation in the creative process.He integrates various scientific theories and ideas such as biology,physics and information into the creation of novels,conducts a unique exploration of the living conditions of human beings under the background of science and technology.The text will focus on the issues of science and people in McEwan’s novels,through reading of Black Dog,Enduring Love,Saturday,The Solar and Machines Like Me and other McEwan works full of scientific elements,in-depth exploration of how the specific theories,technologies and beliefs derived from science in different eras create difficulties for human existence,and reveal the way out of trouble pointed out by McEwan.The thesis is divided into three parts:introduction,body and conclusion.The introduction part briefly summarizes the life and creation of Ian McEwan,sorts out the research status of McEwan’s novels,and focuses on the research on scientific issues.On this basis,the research of this thesis is proposed.Goals and general framework.Chapter one first clarifies the concept of science used in this paper,and sorts out the development history of science.Finally,starting from McEwan’s creation,it summarizes the types of science in McEwan’s novels and McEwan’s basic attitude towards science.Chapter two discusses the biology and human emotional predicament in Saturday and Enduring Love,revealing the materialized understanding of emotion by contemporary biology in McEwan’s novels.Through the journey of three different characters toward madness,McEwan profoundly exposes the emotional alienation of human beings based on biological discourses of evolution.Faced with the emotional dilemma,McEwan first affirmed the biological view on the universality of emotion,and then emphasized the importance of empathy and communication,reshaping emotion’s meaning and value on the basis of biology.Chapter three discusses the cognition dilemma of physics and human in Black Dog and The Solar,and examines the limitation of scientific cognition.Through irony,McEwan reveals the monotony of perspective,the self-delusion of commitment to objectivity,and the illusory belief in progress of this rigid cognition.Finally,the meaning and value of scientific cognition is revealed in the creative dimension,and through writing,he explores the complementary path of the two cognition methods of science and humanities,and promotes the integration of the two to form a better cognition method.Chapter four discusses the ethical dilemma between artificial intelligence and humans in Machines Like Me.With the support of science and technology,artificial intelligence transcends human subjectivity by virtue of the characteristics of appearance,mind and behavior,can make independent value judgments,and bring a different kind of ethical discourse.Through the ethical conflict between man and artificial man,the novel reflects the value challenge of bionic man ethics to anthropocentric family,law and bioethics,and reveals various ethical defects of human beings.Faced with ethical dilemmas,McEwan pointed out that while technology is challenging,it can also prompt human beings to return to their essence and reflect on themselves,so as to give full play to human initiative and adaptability,and seek a diversity ethics to adapt the future society.The conclusion summarizes McEwan’s views on science and its implications for society.