Stefano Gualeni’s Books

The Clouds (Routledge 2023) On a slow autumn afternoon, an atmospheric physicist working at the Malta Weather Station receives a surprising email from a colleague working in the United Kingdom: something troubling has apparently been detected during one of their research flights. The ensuing meteorological mystery is the starting point for the science fiction novella The Clouds.

Fictional Games (Bloomsbury 2022, with Riccardo Fassone) What role do imaginary games have in story-telling? Why do fiction authors outline the rules of a game that the reader will never watch or play? Combining perspectives from philosophy, literature and game studies, this book provides the first in-depth investigation into the significance of games in fictional worlds.

Virtual Existentialism (Palgrave 2020, with Daniel Vella) This book explores what it means to exist in virtual worlds. Chiefly drawing on the philosophical traditions of existentialism, it articulates the idea that — by means of our technical equipment and coordinated practices — human beings disclose artificial worlds in which they can perceive, feel, act, and think.

Virtual Worlds as Philosophical Tools (Palgrave 2015) Who are we in virtual worlds? Will experiencing worlds that are not 'actual' change our ways of structuring thought? Can these worlds reveal new possibilities to philosophize? This book tries to answer these questions from a perspective that combines the philosophy of technology with virtual worlds research.