Orwell and Philosophy: An Overview

Abstract Orwell was not a philosopher by training. Still, his writing contains insightful reflections on a variety of topics that are of perennial interest to academic philosophers. These topics include social class, work, imperialism, socialism, democracy, totalitarianism, politics, liberty, equality, free expression, art, literature, metaphor, technology, the nature of truth, the ethics of war, and the power of language, among others. This article provides an introduction both to Orwell’s thought on these topics and to the ways in which academic philosophers have interpreted and used Orwell’s writing in fields ranging from epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language to political philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics.