🔹 Between opinion and morality - why fantasy is needed more than ever
Fantasy and philosophy: We live in an age in which there is hardly any distinction between opinion and morality. Where there used to be discussion, there is now judgment - often emotional, often loud, rarely differentiated. As a fantasy author who thinks and writes autodidactically, I see this with growing concern. Free discourse, which should actually be the basis of all intellectual development, is increasingly becoming a stage for self-dramatization and outrage.
In this social imbalance, fantasy suddenly becomes relevant again - not as an escape, but as a free space. A fictional world knows no real power structures, no political factions, no media spin doctors. It allows you to think thoughts that would immediately be judged morally or ideologically in real life. In fantasy worlds, I can ask questions: What if the "evil" had good reasons? Or: What if our ethical pillars are not universal, but culturally determined?
Today, fantasy is one of the last places where thinking is still allowed - and is not immediately categorized as "right" or "wrong". It invites you to change your perspective, to cross borders, to have visions - without anyone raising a moral finger.
What if our real world listened more again - instead of constantly lecturing? Maybe then it would not only be fairer, but also smarter. Fantasy shows that it is possible. And that's exactly why we need it today more than ever.
🖋 About Alex Strüver
Alex is the founder of Fantasy News & Lifestyle Magazine and a fantasy author himself.
He works self-taught, independent of academic standards - with a clear focus on depth, world view and freedom of thought.
His articles combine cultural analysis, socio-critical thinking and creative storytelling - beyond clichés and conformity.
For him, fantasy is not escapism, but a laboratory for new ideas.
🔹 Debate culture vs. freedom of thought - why fantasy can be more critical than reality - Fantasy and philosophy
Fantasy and philosophy: the current culture of debate in the West has maneuvered itself into a dead end. Discussions that used to be based on arguments are now charged with emotionality, moral pressure and political conformity. Anyone who raises an issue that lies outside the accepted opinion quickly risks being branded - not because of their stance, but simply because of the issue itself.
In this atmosphere, it becomes almost impossible to discuss complex topics in a differentiated way at all. Because as soon as facts are overlaid with moral assessments, they lose their neutrality. And without neutrality, there is no real debate, only camps.
This is exactly where fantasy reveals its greatest strength: it decouples the topic from the real context. In a fictional world, I as an author can write about systems, cultures or conflicts without anyone feeling directly attacked. I can explore extremism without serving a political agenda. I can reverse gender roles, break up power relations, turn ethical models on their head - without being held publicly accountable.
Dark fantasy, for example, makes it possible to show what happens when violence, oppression or fanaticism are no longer "just" marginal phenomena - but a system. And romance fantasy addresses social longings, insecurities or conflicts without labeling them. Why is "Enemies to Lovers" so celebrated right now? Perhaps because it expresses something that is suppressed in reality - the desire for friction, for dangerous closeness, for archaic tension that is labeled as "toxic" in real life.
Fantasy is therefore not a place of escape - it is a place of raw truth. Just in disguise. And that is precisely why it is often more honest than any talk show monologue or social media rant. Because it doesn't force an attitude on anyone - it poses the question: What if ...?
🔹 Artistic philosophy - thinking without permission - Fantasy and philosophy
Philosophy does not have to take place in the lecture hall. It doesn't need a degree, an academic career or an ethics committee. What it needs is space - space to think, to feel, to question. And it is precisely this space that I find in fantasy.
I call what I do artistic philosophy. Not because I develop philosophical systems or take my cue from Plato and Kant. But because as an author I create worlds in which fundamental questions of human existence take on a new form: Who are we? What is power? What is justice? How does guilt arise - and how freedom?
Unlike academic philosophy, which often operates with a certain methodical coldness, artistic philosophy is emotional, intuitive and narrative. It does not seek to categorize, but to make it tangible. I work with observation, with reflection, with stories - not with quotations from secondary literature. What I describe comes from experience, from what I see, read and feel. Not from a curriculum.
Many in the academic world consider this to be "unscientific". Maybe so. But my job is not to be scientific - it's to be truthful. I don't write to get a teaching job. I write to ask questions that no one in the real world is allowed to ask without incurring the wrath of the gatekeepers.
Because that is the problem: in many areas, it is no longer the depth of an idea that determines its relevance, but its conformity. Anyone who has an idea that lies outside the morally accepted corridor is not taken seriously - but sorted out. The belief in certificates, academic arrogance, ethics committees - all of these have gutted philosophy in many places. What remains is the administration of thought. Not thinking power.
Fantasy is free of that. In my stories, I can create a world in which "evil" wins - and draw ethical insights precisely from this. I can show authoritarian systems that work. I can create alternative moral worlds in which there are no possessions or shame - and see what happens. I can be provocative, exaggerate, think extremely - because it's fictional. And that's precisely why it's so true.
The strength of fantasy is not that it is real - but that it reflects, distorts and questions the real. Its philosophy is not a theory - it is a simulation. It allows us to play out moral systems without real consequences, but with real knowledge.
That is artistic philosophy: thinking without permission. And that's exactly why we need it.
🔹 Access to complexity - How fantasy makes difficult topics accessible - Fantasy and philosophy
Fantasy and philosophy: It is a paradoxical phenomenon of our time: the more complex a topic is, the faster it is simplified, distorted or even pushed out of the discourse altogether. We live in a world in which information rushes through social media every second - but real depth almost always falls by the wayside. Narratives replace facts, buzzwords supersede arguments, and anyone who speaks with too much nuance is quickly considered unclear or suspicious.
I observe this as an author, but also as a person with a keen eye for social developments. Issues such as justice, identity, abuse of power, cultural conflicts - all of these can hardly be discussed freely in the real world. Anyone who thinks critically, who doesn't allow themselves to be squeezed into camps, is either ignored or actively attacked. Examples such as Jordan Peterson show this impressively: instead of engaging with his analysis, academic institutions prefer to try and devalue him.
It's different in fantasy. Fictional worlds are not images, they are mirror spaces. I can create social models there that break with our moral standards - and nobody takes it personally. I can show what happens when revenge is socially accepted. Or when freedom is not the highest good, but loyalty. I can create cultures in which concepts such as guilt, honor or dignity function completely differently - and thus provide food for thought that is only possible again beyond the real debates.
As an author, I am not interested in saying what is "right". I want to show how different "right" can be - depending on perspective, world view, historical development or cultural self-image. Fantasy allows this diversity because it doesn't have to conform to any real norms. It does not represent, as it is - but asks, how it could be.
And that is precisely what makes them so valuable at a time when the real world increasingly seems to know only black or white. In fantasy, everything can be gray - and that is precisely where its philosophical depth lies.
🔹 Innovation through fiction - when worlds can be reimagined
Fantasy and philosophy: genuine innovation only arises where no rules apply - at least not those of reality. Where there is no dogma, no prohibitions on thinking, no institutional barriers. And that is precisely why fiction - especially fantasy - is so powerful: it is the place where we can create new societies, new ethics, new realities without permission.
I see fantasy as a laboratory. A thinking space in which I can completely reassemble political, economic, social and spiritual systems. Regardless of what is "realistic". I'm not interested in whether a model could be transferred one-to-one to our world. I am interested in whether it conceivable is - whether it opens a window, exposes a thought that would otherwise remain buried under concrete.
What happens when a world functions without property? If ownership never existed as a concept? What if technology is replaced by magic - and with it the idea of progress? What if justice is not based on equality, but on personal honor? No one asks such questions in a draft law. But in a fantasy novel, I can think them through to the end - along with all the consequences.
This is not just a game. Many of the ideas that are taken for granted today had their origins in stories. The vision of equal rights, of democracy, of social justice - they were not first formulated by politicians, but by authors, thinkers and visionaries. Fiction has often prepared the world before reality has followed suit.
Fantasy is particularly valuable because it is not limited to the Known remains limited. Science fiction often imagines the future of our world - fantasy imagines the Alternative. It does not ask: "What will happen?", but rather: "What could be completely different?" And this is precisely where the potential for profound social change lies.
Fantasy and philosophy: I don't write to confirm existing systems. I write to invent new ones - or to question old ones. Fantasy allows me to do this without debates that require approval, without ideological repression. It is my tool to think the way I want to think - radically, speculatively, honestly.
Utopia is not naive. It is the first step towards reality. And if we are serious about change, then we should listen to fiction again - because it is already thinking what others don't even dare to dream.
🔹 Conclusion: Free thinking needs free worlds - and authors who dare
Fantasy and philosophy: I don't write fantasy because I want to escape reality. I write because I want to escape reality. understand and scrutinize wants - without filters, without restrictions, without ideological chains. As a self-taught author, I don't need licenses to think validly. I don't need academic approval to ask myself questions that others no longer dare to ask.
For me, fantasy is not a children's genre or a pure entertainment format. It is more philosophical than many talk shows, more honest than many speeches, and more visionary than many a think tank. It allows us to create systems that no one has ever thought of before - and that is its true strength.
If you want to change something today, you have to learn to think in terms of possibilities - not limits. And that's exactly what fantasy does. It creates spaces in which ideas can breathe. Worlds in which thinking becomes free again.
Because perhaps fiction is not just our mirror. Perhaps it is the blueprint for a better reality. For all those who dare. Fantasy and philosophy:
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