science fiction novel: Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

The most interesting facet of Philip Dick's novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, is its depiction of humanity and several crucial tenets that help to define it. Within the novel, humanity is akin to empathy, since one of the primary distinctions between the people and androids in it is that the former are capable of and the latter incapable of empathy. Yet what the novel ultimately alludes to is that human need to feel and express a range of emotions, something that most of the humans are not able to do, choosing to substitute honest emotion with pre-determined, synthesized ones.

This conflict of attempting to transcend limited emotions to the full range of emotions, which is the ultimate expression of humanity, is demonstrated by the characterization of Rick Deckard. Deckard -- whose job is to hunt androids...
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