Mercerism, Empathy, and Humanity in Philip K. Dick's Electric Sheep

This essay delves into Philip K. Dick's novel, 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,' focusing on the concept of Mercerism and its significance within the narrative. The essay examines Mercerism as a religion that emphasizes empathy and community, contrasting it with the actions of androids. It explores the use of the Empathy Box and its role in connecting individuals to Mercer. The essay also discusses how Mercerism serves to differentiate humans from androids and how empathy is a crucial element. It highlights the parallels between Mercerism and other religions, particularly Christianity and Islam, emphasizing the importance of empathy and love. The essay concludes by summarizing the themes of religion, empathy, and humanity within the novel.

Running head: ENGLISH
English
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
A good number of themes and issues have been covered in the realm of science fiction.
One of the social issues that have been prevenance in science fiction includes the effect of
religion as well as society. In Philip K. Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,
published in the year “1968” bounty hunter Rick Deckard hunts downs five Nexus Six Androids
that escaped from Mars. In the book, the influence of one religion, that is, Marcesism is highly
prevalent. Several connections from Mercerism can be pinched to religions as well as pseudo-
religions that have been as well as still are followed to this day. The connection involves Mercer
himself being made to look like Christ and his actions and teachings also resemble the same. In
the following paragraph, the definition and perspective of Mercerism and its purpose in the novel
will be evaluated. The synopsis of the mentioned novel includes Rick Deckard, who is a bounty
hunter, was asked to kill errant androids in order to replace his robotic sheep with a real one. In
the process of killing these slave pseudo-humans. Acquiring high-status animal pets and linking
in to empathy boxes appear to be the only two ways that humans can attain existential fulfilment.
The chief purpose of Merciesm in the Novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is to identify
and enhance empathy and humanity beings.
Discussion
In this paragraph, the concept and significance of mercerism has been discussed along
with its connection with the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Mercerism can be
defined as a religion that spread on the earth as well the space colonies after the world War
Terminus whose chief purpose was to unite humanity. The religion was based on the life as well

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as teachings of Wilbur Mercer on the basis on two major principles that includes empathy to
other individuals and working for the benefit of the community. The Mercism religion is
completely based on animals since majority of the species of animals had been killed in the war.
The religion heavily relies on empathy for connecting with its followers. Mercerism is expressed
with the use of a device called an Empathy Box where the users merge with the recordings of
Wilbur Mercer. However, at the of the Novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the
Androids from Mars proves that the recordings are originally from a Hollywood Studio and
hence Wilbur Mercer is a fake. Another note worthy thing of the book includes, it was the
empathy that set human apart from the androids. Androids believed that Mercerism was a
symbol that human beings are superior to androids since empathy is something threat can only be
practiced by the former.
In this paragraph, analysis of mercerism and how it has been symbolized in the
mentioned novel have been performed. In the novel Isidore point out that without Mercerism
experience, there is no real proof of empathy. This point brings up a lot about the meaning of
empathy as well as the importance of emotions in the definition of a human as well as the actual
definition of humanity. A question was raised in the novel. If Mercer really is face, does
Mercerism still hold any value on the people of earth? Will the concept of the Mercercism
religion still remain alive or people will eventually forget about empathy and humanity. The
individuals of the earth have created Mercerism for differentiating humans and androids. They
also idolize animals with the help of Mercerism. The modern society has been created to unify
groups of individuals in a religion like humans are unified my Mercerism. In his novel, Dick
demonstrates that it is humanity and empathy that differentiate human beings fro robots. Another
perspective of the novel includes, religion is used as measure of humanity as well as certificate

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against the androids. Similarly, modern religion is also used as a unifier as well as a boundary
between individuals.
In this paragraph, the role of empathy in Mercerism and other religions has been
discussed. Mercerism has the potential to promote empathy between the followers, through a
process called fusion. With the help of using the Empathy box, followers have the ability to
reach out as well as fuse with one another so that the struggle ad success of one another can be
felt. Thus it can be clearly understand that instead of visiting a church or a temple for
worshiping, the followers of Mercer’s used the empathy box. The usuers entered the parallel
world by gripping the twin handles of the empathy box. For instance, a situation has been
descrbed by The autor “[Isidore] crossed over in the usual perplexing fashion; physical merging
—accompanied by mental and spiritual identification—with Wilbur Mercer had reoccurred. As it
did for everyone who at this moment clutched the handles, either here on Earth or on one of the
colony planets (Dick). “(pg 22) Everyone perticipates in the ritual together, which is a collective
consciousness all crammed into the head of Mercer. According to Mercer while the stone hurts,
it is not just pain but also the joy that was shared through empathy. This demonstrates an act of
fusion. Fusion allows for individuals feeling to be one together, a point made in Seema Bashir’s
article, “Fusion with Mercer bring the existentially torn apart people together. Their feeling of
being one with Mercer is also the feeling of being one with each other,” (pg 45).
Christianity, like Mercerism, Empathy is a highly crucial tenant of a good number of religions.
Christians are taught to “Love your neighbour as yourself,” (Dick). In Quran, the Islamic
teaching says, “Surely Allah enjoins the doing of justice and the doing of good and the giving to
the kindred”. Thus, it can be clearly understood that the purpose of Mercerism in the novel is to

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point out it is empathy and love for others, be it human beings or animal that separates mankind
from androids.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be clearly understood that, Phillip K. Dick’s uses
Mercerism in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep in order to demonstrate the effect of religion
on the society. Mercer, in the novel has been depicted as a Christ-like figure as seen in the
similarities in both of their deaths as well as resurrections. The central belief of Mercerism is
empathy which is also considered to be a primary tenant of a good number of major religions.
The Empathy Box service as a vehicle since it has become closer to Mercer unlike the number of
Christians practiced self-mortification for growing closer to God along with feeling the pain of
the crucifixion of Christ.

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Reference List
Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?(Mandarin Edition). Simon and Schuster,
2014.