《生化人會夢見電子羊嗎？》是一部由美國作家菲利普•迪克於1968年出版的科幻小說，同時也是知名電影《銀翼殺手》的原著。本作品的重點在於質疑接下獵殺逃離殖民星球任務的賞金獵人瑞克•戴克與被判斷因身體殘障不具移民資格而遠離人群獨居的約翰•伊西多爾兩人和生化人們實際相處之下所產生的困惑與矛盾，以及探討兩人最後彼此各自得到理解生命真髓之結論的過程。本論文旨在探討『同理心』這個在文中不斷被提起的重要概念是否擁有足夠的可靠性與說服力來做為區分人與非人之間的唯一基準。第一章介紹了作者迪克與小說本身以及本文中所提起的問題─關於在只能依賴『同理心』這個模糊的定義作為區分之下，人與機械的關係導致了人性的定位逐漸開始動搖。第二章則檢驗同理心的定義以找出無論它是否為一個無庸置疑的基準，在小說裡的各種定位與實際上如何用來分辨人類與生化人的方法，以及一些在故事中提到的可能打擊其有效性的疑點。在第二章提起同理心可能造成的問題之後，第三章將把重點放在作者本人對人類與生化人之間定義的分界。基於迪克對人性的批判及“androidization”─一個可能發生在任何人身上的喪失人性與非人化過程，本章將驗證小說中人與非人之間的界線已逐漸模糊。並從結論來說，這部小說讓我們超越了人與非人的界線，對生命有更新的認識。
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a science fiction novel first published in 1968, by an American writer, Philip K. Dick, also well known as the primary basis for the movie Blade Runner. The novel has consistently questioned the manifestations of humanity through the struggle and confusion when both Rick Deckard, a Bounty hunter accomplishing his mission to hunt down escaped androids and John Isidore, an lonesome outcast lives far away from the crowd getting along with androids and the conclusion they make to realize what is the true nature of life. This thesis will examine the reliability of “empathy” —an idea considered to be a most important factor of human identity from ideas and examples given in the story to distinguish between human and non-human. The first chapter introduces the author, the novel, and the existential questions posed by the novel regarding the relationship between man and machine as well as the increasingly unstable human identity, which depends on the problematic criterion of empathy. The second chapter will examine the definition of empathy in order to find out the role it plays in the novel, to analyze how is it used to distinguish humans and androids, whether it can be used as a standard without doubt, and problems that destabilize its validity as can be found in the novel. In light of the problems of empathy reflected in the second chapter, the third chapter will focus on how Philip Dick redefines the meanings of and the boundary between humans and androids. Based on Dick’s own reflections on humanity and the so-called “androidization”—a dehumanized process that can happen to anyone, the chapter will analyze the blurring of human-android distinction in the novel. In conclusion, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? makes us go beyond the boundaries of human and non-human, and obtain new cognitions of life.
