Russian cosmism
Encyclopedia
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and cultural
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
movement that emerged in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
in the early 20th century. It entailed a broad theory of natural philosophy
Natural philosophy
Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature , is a term applied to the study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science...
combining elements of religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
and ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
with a history and philosophy of the origin
Cosmology
Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
, evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
and future existence of the cosmos
Cosmos
In the general sense, a cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. It originates from the Greek term κόσμος , meaning "order" or "ornament" and is antithetical to the concept of chaos. Today, the word is generally used as a synonym of the word Universe . The word cosmos originates from the same root...
and humankind. It combined elements from both Eastern
Eastern philosophy
Eastern philosophy includes the various philosophies of Asia, including Chinese philosophy, Iranian philosophy, Japanese philosophy, Indian philosophy and Korean philosophy...
and Western philosophic traditions
Western philosophy
Western philosophy is the philosophical thought and work of the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies and the varieties of indigenous philosophies....
as well as from the Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
.
Cosmism was one of the influences on Proletkult
Proletkult
Proletkult was movement which arose in the Russian revolution and was active from 1917 to 1925 which aspired to provide the foundations for what was intended to be a truly proletarian art devoid of bourgeois influence.The name is a portmanteau of "proletarskaya kultura" , which are better-known as...
, and after the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
the term came to be applied to "the poetry of such writers as Mikhail Gerasimov
Mikhail Gerasimov (poet)
Mikhail Prokofyevich Gerasimov was one of the most widely-read working-class poets in early twentieth century Russia. Initially embracing the Bolshevik revolution as a liberating event and participating in the effort to create a new "proletarian culture," following the New Economic Policy he...
and Vladimir Kirillov...: emotional paeans to physical labor, machines, and the collective of industrial workers ... organized around the image of the universal 'Proletarian,' who strides forth from the earth to conquer planets and stars." This form of cosmism, along with the writings of Nikolai Fyodorov
Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov
Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov was a Russian Orthodox Christian philosopher, who was part of the Russian cosmism movement and a precursor of transhumanism...
, was a strong influence on Andrei Platonov
Andrei Platonov
Andrei Platonov was the pen name of Andrei Platonovich Klimentov , a Soviet author whose works anticipate existentialism. Although Platonov was a Communist, his works were banned in his own lifetime for their skeptical attitude toward collectivization and other Stalinist policies...
.
Many ideas of the Russian cosmists were later developed by those in the transhumanist
Transhumanism
Transhumanism, often abbreviated as H+ or h+, is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human...
movement.
Representatives
Among the major representatives of Russian cosmism was Nikolai Fyodorovich FyodorovNikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov
Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov was a Russian Orthodox Christian philosopher, who was part of the Russian cosmism movement and a precursor of transhumanism...
(1828—1903), an advocate of radical life extension
Life extension
Life extension science, also known as anti-aging medicine, experimental gerontology, and biomedical gerontology, is the study of slowing down or reversing the processes of aging to extend both the maximum and average lifespan...
by means of scientific methods, human immortality
Immortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
and resurrection
Resurrection
Resurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...
of dead people.
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was an Imperial Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of the astronautic theory. Along with his followers the German Hermann Oberth and the American Robert H. Goddard, he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics...
(1857—1935) was the first pioneer of theoretical space exploration
Space exploration
Space exploration is the use of space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft....
and cosmonautics. In 1903, he published Изслѣдованіе міровыхъ пространствъ реактивными приборами (The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reactive Devices [Rockets]), the first serious scientific work on space travel. Tsiolkovsky believed that colonizing space would lead to the perfection of the human race, with immortality and a carefree existence. He also developed ideas of the "animated atom" (panpsychism
Panpsychism
In philosophy, panpsychism is the view that all matter has a mental aspect, or, alternatively, all objects have a unified center of experience or point of view...
), and "radiant mankind".
Other cosmists included Vladimir Vernadsky
Vladimir Vernadsky
Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky was a Russian/Ukrainian and Soviet mineralogist and geochemist who is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and of radiogeology. His ideas of noosphere were an important contribution to Russian cosmism. He also worked in Ukraine where he...
(1863—1945), who developed the notion of noosphere
Noosphere
Noosphere , according to the thought of Vladimir Vernadsky and Teilhard de Chardin, denotes the "sphere of human thought". The word is derived from the Greek νοῦς + σφαῖρα , in lexical analogy to "atmosphere" and "biosphere". Introduced by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 1922 in his Cosmogenesis"...
, and Alexander Chizhevsky
Alexander Chizhevsky
Alexander Chizhevsky was a Soviet-era interdisciplinary scientist, a biophysicist who founded “heliobiology” and “aero-ionization”...
(1897—1964), pioneer of "heliobiology
Chronobiology
Chronobiology is a field of biology that examines periodic phenomena in living organisms and their adaptation to solar- and lunar-related rhythms. These cycles are known as biological rhythms. Chronobiology comes from the ancient Greek χρόνος , and biology, which pertains to the study, or science,...
" (study of the sun’s effect on biology). A minor planet
Minor planet
An asteroid group or minor-planet group is a population of minor planets that have a share broadly similar orbits. Members are generally unrelated to each other, unlike in an asteroid family, which often results from the break-up of a single asteroid...
, 3113 Chizhevskij
3113 Chizhevskij
3113 Chizhevskij is a main-belt asteroid discovered on September 1, 1978 by Chernykh, N. at Nauchnyj.- External links :*...
(discovered by Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh
Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh
Nikolay Stepanovich Chernykh was a Soviet and Russian astronomer.Chernykh was born in the city of Usman' in Voronezh Oblast...
in 1978) is named after him.
Quote
From the Famous quotes by Brain website:
Reading
- Nikolai FyodorovNikolai Fyodorovich FyodorovNikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov was a Russian Orthodox Christian philosopher, who was part of the Russian cosmism movement and a precursor of transhumanism...
: Studien zu Leben, Werk und Wirkung (Nikolai Fyodorov: Studies to his Life, Works and his Influence) :by Michael HagemeisterMichael HagemeisterMichael Hagemeister is a contemporary German scholar, historian and slavist, and one of the world's foremost authorities on the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and on Sergei Nilus, who first published "The Protocols" in book form in 1905.Hagemeister was employed at the universities of...
:(München: Sagner, 1989):ISBN 3-87690-461-7:Originally presented as the author’s thesis (doctoral) — Philipps-Universität Marburg, 1989.
- Michael HagemeisterMichael HagemeisterMichael Hagemeister is a contemporary German scholar, historian and slavist, and one of the world's foremost authorities on the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and on Sergei Nilus, who first published "The Protocols" in book form in 1905.Hagemeister was employed at the universities of...
: Russian Cosmism in the 1920s and Today. In: Bernice G. Rosenthal (ed.): The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture (Ithaca, London: Cornell UP, 1997), pp. 185-202.
External links
- R. Djordjevic Russian Cosmism (with the Selective Bibliography) and its Uprising Effect on the Development of Space Research (PDF)
- COSMISM: This is where we came from and where we going to.
- Brief overview of Russian philosophy
- PHILTAR - Comprehensive web site with links to texts and resources
- Gallery of Russian Thinkers edited by Dmitry Olshansky
- Russian philosophy - entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Directory of links to Russian philosophers, mostly in Russian
- Tsiolkovsky's Imperative in the 21st Century Academic paper
- Virtual Matchbox Labels Museum - Russian labels - Space - Page 2 - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Historic images
- Tsiolkovsky from Russianspaceweb.com
- Spaceflight or Extinction: Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Excerpts from "The Aims of Astronautics", The Call of the Cosmos
- The Foundations of the Space Age