Experimental Thoughts

Experimental Thoughts

A Magazine of Literary Philosophy

A home for philosophical fiction, thought experiments brought to life, stories of ethical dilemmas, tales of metaphysical paradoxes, and narratives mixed with logical puzzles.

Experimental Thoughts is a new electronic magazine of short stories that explore the connections between speculative fiction and philosophy, edited by Carneades.org. Whether it is a narrative using the freedom of speculative fiction to explore philosophical concepts like time travel, free will, identity, and ethics, or a philosophical thought experiment inspiring a story that forces us to come into direct emotional confrontation with the implications of a philosophy, we want to read it! The goal of this magazine is to highlight fictional stories that touch on the topics of philosophy with an annual publication, and submissions open every fall.

General Guidelines

Word Count: 500-5,000 Words
Pay: 2¢ per word (via PayPal)
Genre: Speculative fiction (see specifics of what we're looking for below)
Rights: We ask for first world electronic print rights, first world electronic audio/video rights, and first print rights, see this document for a sample contract.
Submissions: Submissions for the first issue are open now and will close on November 30th 2026.
Simultaneous Submissions: Allowed, but please notify us if you are accepted somewhere else as soon as possible.
Reprints: We are not accepting reprints at this time.

What we're looking for:

Thought Experiments: Stories that dramatize famous thought experiments which ground the philosophical concept with emotional, human reality.
Ethical Dilemmas: Fiction that has characters confront the reality of ethical dilemmas and the consequences of people or societies following particular ethical maxims dogmatically.
Paradoxes: Tales that chronicle people confronting strange metaphysical paradoxes, or imagining how those paradoxes might manifest in reality.
Unconventional storytelling: Aesthetically creative stories which push the bounds of the ways in which we choose to tell stories: think epistolary narratives, or ergodic literature.
Logical Puzzles: Narratives that effectively interweave logical puzzles or riddles into the plot.
Humor: Satire which uses speculative fiction to reframe or reflect ethical or political questions in the real world without being too heavy-handed or prescriptive. While not required, humor in any story is appreciated.

What we're NOT looking for:

Nonfiction: We are not looking for philosophy papers here, no matter how creative the thought experiments in them. Your submission should be a fictional story, not a formal philosophy paper.
Writing with no speculative elements: There needs to be some amount of magic, futuristic technology, secondary worlds, imagined creatures, alternate history, or supernatural forces in your story. It can be subtle or all-encompassing, but it has to be there.
Religious Apologetics: We are not looking for works that attempt to persuade someone to believe in a deity or particular religious dogma here. Works can absolutely deal with the themes of religion, but they should be driven by real characters interacting with the world they find themselves in, not agitprop trying to get the audience to accept your religion.
Grotesque Violence or Explicit Sex: Generally we aren't looking for splatterpunk or extra spicy romance (a little is fine, think the level of a R-rated movie). It isn't an automatic no, especially if the story is commenting on or satirizing such components, but a work with them will need to work that much harder to prove that those elements are essential to the narrative.
AI Generated/Enhanced Text: We don't accept any stories generated or edited by artificial intelligence systems.

Submission Process

Submissions for the first issue are open now and will close on November 30th.
In order to submit, fill out the form below, including your name, your byline (if any), the word count for your submission, your contact information, a short bio (one or two sentences is fine), and your submission.
Your story should be submitted in Standard Manuscript Format as either a .doc, .docx, or .otd file.
You may only submit one story per submission window.
You will be contacted by the end of the calendar year with either an acceptance or a rejection. Please wait until 2027 to query. The email address to query can be found here.

Submit Your Story

Fill out the form below to submit your story: