Ontology and Ethics in the Writings of Philip K. Dick is a doctoral thesis submitted to the University of Hull in October 1995 by Andrew Mark Butler (B.A. Hons). At 313 pages, it represents one of the earliest and most substantial works of academic scholarship devoted to Dick's literary and philosophical output.
The thesis is organized into multiple chapters addressing distinct aspects of Dick's work. Chapter One, titled "Possible maybes," examines realism and the fantastic in Dick's fiction, covering literary realism, author-reader relations, the science fiction genre, the "New Wave" movement, and a detailed case study of In Milton Lumky Territory exploring familiarization, character types, and genre boundaries. Chapter Two, "Life is turning into a Philip K. Dick Novel," addresses ontology and its discontents, engaging with philosophical realism, Dick's use of viewpoint to mediate access to the real, postmodern theory (including Fredric Jameson and Jean Baudrillard on Dick), cyberpunk, and Dick as a postmodern icon. Chapter Three, "Can a person hallucinate without being psychotic?," examines hallucinatory environments in works including Eye in the Sky and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, with attention to McCarthyism, Black politics, and the American Left.
Butler went on to become a prominent Dick scholar, publishing the Pocket Essentials critical guide to Dick and contributing to numerous academic discussions of his work. This thesis represents the foundational research behind much of his subsequent scholarly output.