Philosophy and Ph-novel
If you think that philosophy and philosophic novella are phenomena of the same kind you are wrong. Though, those have typical names those are rather different. Sure, there are a lot of common features of those, as otherwise this genre won't be called as philosophic novel, but there are also a lot of differences between those two kinds of literature works.
First of all, the main difference between the philosophic works and philosophic novels is the nature of those. The philosophic novel is a fiction and the philosophic work is documentary work. There are no characters in the philosophic works and there are no plots of those. There are only thoughts expressed by one who made an effort to cognize this world.
As for the philosophic novels those are fictional works and they are literature indeed. There are characters of every philosophic novel and there is a plot peculiar for philosophic novel. That plot is always of common composition: start, development of events, culmination and denouement.
In the philosophic novels just like in the philosophic work author expresses his vision of the world and his point of view to some problem. Though, the difference between those is that author of philosophic work expresses his thoughts with "his own mouth". And the author of philosophic novel expresses his thought through his characters, through their dialogues and thoughts.