Nikolai Fedorov – Founder Oftherussiancosmism Introduction P.O
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26 Context and Reflection: Philosophy of the World and Human Being. 5-6`2013 / UDC 141 Nikolai Fedorov – founder of the Russian cosmism http://publishing-vak.ru ) u Volkov Vladimir Nikolaevich Full Doctor of Philosophy, professor of the department of management, socio-cultural activities and tourism, [email protected] Academy for Retraining in Arts, Culture and Tourism, P.O. Box 123007, 5-th Magistral'naya str., No. 5, Moscow, Russia; e-mail: [email protected] Abstract Many studies have been published recently on the teaching of the Russian think- er Nikolai Fedorov, but in the assessment of his creativity is still evidenced by RODIS" ( Publishing House "ANALITIKA innuendo, disguise, a veil of silence silence and simply preconception. over extended periods implicitly formed the tradition of perception of Fedorov as a brilliant visionary, righteous and uncanonized holy man, whose life is easy to fit into the genre of the lives, and ideas are discussed in the tideway of orthodox philosophy or in the framework of scientific prediction, forecasting, futurologi- cal project, or both of them together. Who was cosmist Fedorov in realшен after all – scientist, philosopher, religious thinker or a charlatan? Keywords Space, patrofication, conciliarity, non-kinship, autotrophy, progress, magic, im- mortality. Introduction origin, studied independently, knew al- most by heart all the books in the library Literature about Fedorov tradi- of the Rumyantsev Museum, dressed in tionally built on hagiographic canon: he rags, slept on the trunk for 3-4 hours, ate lived quietly, wandered, concealed his bread and tea, refused increased salaries, Volkov Vladimir Nikolaevich Publishing House "ANALITIKA RODIS" 27 handed out money to the poor, consid- erary and artistic form (F. Dostoevsky, ered sinful any private property, etc1. L. Tolstoy). So what is this difference? Nevertheless, this holy, a prophet of en- First, Fedorov boundlessly believes in cyclical resurrection threatens mankind, human reason and science and dreams of scolds science, education, rich people, mastering the full mysteries of life and universities, intellectuals, progress, citi- the victory over death, of a man reach- zenship, legal laws, rights and freedoms, ing godlike power. The land itself came Enlightenment, institute of chartered, lit- in human being to the perception of its erary publicity, branding culture and civ- fate and this active awareness is a means ilization as a whole and all "the repub- of salvation: when the mechanism would lic of letters" in particular2. All this does deteriorate, in a man's face appeared me- not prevent him to call criminal offenses chanic who will fix everything: "The real "pranks" as "terrible in its consequences, true virtue can be found only in the man- they are in motives quite childish"3. agement of the blind forces of nature"4. Fedorov is sure that human activities The originality of the Fedorov's should not be limited outside the Earth concept planet. He has no doubt that awakened from death, resurrected and transfigured In Russian philosophical thought humanity will settle on other planets, ex- Fedorov is an unusual figure, his ideas plore other worlds and universes. are very different from both the Christian Secondly, Fedorov has a severe philosophizing (K. Leontiev, V. Soloviev, aversion to abstract theorizing and phi- N. Berdyaev, etc.) and from religious losophizing. All philosophical thought and ethical concepts expressed in the lit- preceding to his own teachings does not 1 Berdyaev, N.A. (1989), "Religion of cause him any sympathy, as separated resurrection ("The philosophy of common from the "common cause". He scolds cause" by N.F. Fedorov)", Collected Works. Vol. 3 ["Religiya voskresheniya all philosophers from Socrates to Kant, ("Filosofiya obshchego dela" N.F. from Soloviev and Tolstoy to Schopen- Fedorova)", Sobranie sochinenii. T. 3], YMCA-Press, Paris, p. 246. hauer and Nietzsche, because they could 2 Fedorov, N.F. (1995-1999), Collected not reveal the true purpose of human ex- works: In 4 vols. Vol. 1 [Sobranie istence, which he opened. Strongly ob- sochinenii: V 4-kh tt. T. 1], Progress, Moscow, pp. 43-47. jecting to the abstract theories and laying 3 Ibid. P. 103. 4 Ibid. P. 104. Nikolai Fedorov – founder of the Russian cosmism 28 Context and Reflection: Philosophy of the World and Human Being. 5-6`2013 claim to construct a "philosophy of the transformation of the world to its knowl- common cause", he tends to turn the theo- edge. For Fedorov absolute knowledge ry into a tool to change the world, which, is possible only in the model created by incidentally, brings him closer to Marx humanity itself. Definitive knowledge of declared that "philosophers have only in- any given from the outside object is only terpreted the world in various ways, but possible when the object is our creation, the point is to change it". Fedorov for- arranged, reduced to our law. mulates this idea as follows: "Thought Third, Fedorov teachings are de- and being are not identical, i.e., the idea signed as religious doctrines. Creator of is not carried out, and it should be car- "common cause" firmly believes in the ried out. < ... > The world is not given convention of apocalyptic prophecies – he to man for observation, the worldview is is convinced in the necessity of universal not a goal of a human being. Man has al- salvation during immanent resurrection, ways considered possible effects on the which unified fraternal humanity reaches world, the way to change it according to "at the behest of God", that mastered the his own desires"5. The main reference secrets of life and death, the secrets of point of Fedorov teachings – not regular, the "metamorphosis of substance". The but proper, not present, but desirable and founder of Russian cosmism "relies" on obliged to be. He seeks to "do" meta- the New Testament of Christ and "re- physics, to implement transcendental. To veals" its cosmic sense, calling for active abandon the passive contemplation of the transformation of natural, mortal world world, abstract metaphysics and proceed in a different, non-natural, artificial, im- to determine the values of proper order mortal, divine type of the being (King- of things, to the development of the plan dom of Heaven). The worst enemies of of transforming human activity – in this the doctrine of resurrection are lurked case, according to Fedorov, the mean- "in parables, metaphors, symbols, al- ing of a new radical change in philoso- legories", i.e., in metaphorical and cul- phy. However, he essentially refuses to tivated understanding of higher truths submit to a particular view of the being about God and human being. According organization. Only creative activity, uni- to Fedorov the requirement to resurrec- versal labor, animated by a great idea tion of the dead must be understood di- of the realist will lead through a radical rectly, literally – this is the great pathos 5 Ibid. Pp. 294-295. of Orthodox Christianity. Volkov Vladimir Nikolaevich Publishing House "ANALITIKA RODIS" 29 Fourth, typical is the Manichean feeling and the need for action. In con- opposition of forces of evil to forces of trast to the individualized philosophizing good for Fedorov concept: to natural birth "scientists" the "unlearned" feel, think, of people – their artificial recreation, to evaluate collectively, relying on a gener- town – the village, to the West – Russia, ic sense, the cult of the dead fathers. to non-fraternity – conciliarity, to Cathol- icism and Protestantism – Orthodoxy, to Fundamentals of the teaching of scientists – uneducated, to metaphysics – Nikolai Fedorov common cause, to science – liturgy, etc. Russia, he said, is opposed to the West, The notion of "common cause" new Judaic culture of Islam maintained appeared in the public consciousness of by the culture of the new paganish West. the XIX century not as a result of inspira- Our unlearned concept of the God and its tion to the works of Fedorov, but thanks unawareness, for example, is above the to literary character Petr Verhovensky – west, the scientific, because it is based the hero of "The Possessed" by Dosto- on feeling, and the God in the West – is a evsky. Used by Dostoevsky in burlesque philosophical God, that is not the father. sense, the term "common cause" in a few Nevertheless, Fedorov sincerely believes decades quite positively perceived in that this option creates the Orthodox re- Russian philosophy – appears the Fedo- ligion, which is amenable both to "sci- rov's work with promising title "Philos- entists" and "uneducated". First – due to ophy of the common cause". However, the fact that Fedorov flirts with advances the title was not invented by Fedorov, of science, complements them with "folk but his publishers Kozhevnikov and Pe- wisdom", the second – by incorporating terson. Fedorov himself treated philoso- the teachings with traditional supersti- phy with great hostility. For instance, he tions and remnants of ancient cultures, writes: "Not only image-worship makes which he regards as "creativity of the the distortion of religion; idolatry is also masses". According to him, "scientists" its misrepresentation; philosophy as the scrambled and distorted a clear outlook product separated from the other repub- on life and death, evil and good in the lic of letters is the greatest distortion of world. "Uneducated" people managed religion"6, "Philosophy is the greatest to preserve this clear view, the people distortion of religion, it is the product deprived of knowledge, but not lost the 6 Ibid. P. 72. Nikolai Fedorov – founder of the Russian cosmism 30 Context and Reflection: Philosophy of the World and Human Being. 5-6`2013 of class separated from the people who there is an external force, compelling us does not want to know its needs, though to do evil, the law of mutual suppression living at the expense of people, living at and death. Non-fraternity, non-gentility the expense of labor of those whom they not only occur as a result of interperson- despise"7; "a state of death is the most al or social contradictions: they go to the philosophical concept..