The Cosmic Philosophy

“Citizens of the Universe”

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“Citizens of the Universe”, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, 1933

 

Here we would like to begin from the beginning, i.e., from elements of the Universe. Who is an immortal citizen of space? It is its atom. An atom – not the one known in science, but a true one – an indivisible particle, matter. Is there any of such? Hardly so. Let’s refer to scientific facts. All so-called atoms (92 items) are composed of hydrogen. Hydrogen itself is complex. But there is also aether. It consists of extremely small particles. It is possible that all matter, i.e. all other atoms, consists of them.

 A true atom is unknown. One thing is observed: the simpler the atom, the more difficult its disintegration is. The most massive atoms decay in thousands of years and even less. Less massive ones – in billions of years. Even more common – in billions, trillions and decillions of years. Particles of hydrogen and aether may be of this kind.

 Matter is a carrier of sense, since there is nothing but matter. What then we can attribute a feeling to? Where the matter is, where the atom is, there is a feeling. Atom or a part of it can be called primal (primitive), or simple, spirit, but, as we have seen, each atom is a composition of the simplest. Destiny of an unknown simplest one depends on participation of the atoms known to science.*

 There are as many true atoms, as there are primal spirits. A primal spirit wanders through the universe and forms unions. We recognize only unions in the world. Life and feeling of an atom depends on the complexity of the union, which it is in: the more complex the union is, the more complex the activity and feeling of the atom. Here is a rough representation of gradually increasing complexity of an atom’s life.

 ……………………………………………………         (beginning unknown).

  1. Life in a particle of ether. Existence for decillions of years, and then disintegration into simpler particles or entering into a combination of more complex ones.   ……………………………………………………     (gap of unknown length).
  2. Existence for trillions of years in a hydrogen particle, and then – disintegration or entering a more complex structure.
  3.  Being in 92 atoms of known elements, then – disintegration or complication.
  4.  Life in plants and lower animals.
  5.  Life in human and higher creatures.

 A single “self”, or a single spirit, exists only in an unknown primitive atom. All other known particles contain the more spirits, the more complicated the particle is. Only unions of spirits are known to us. Even particles of aether are unions of spirits. But this union is very stable, almost indestructible, because lasts for decillions of years. A great number of spirits in it, possibly, feel concordantly. The word ‘feeling’ has only mathematical value here, like a speck of dust, which we do not weigh, do not measure and do not consider its mass. This is a conditional nonexistence. Only in higher animals spirits experience what we conditionally name life, or being.

 A man or an even higher combination reflects the Universe not fully, but correctly. Such a combination of spirits is a very complex alliance of spirits under single control. But this combination, as the most passive one, is the least stable. However, duration of this stability can grow considerably. It is indeterminate and to a large extent depends on the mechanism of the union. Like life of a republic or its stability depends on the laws of the country, and timespan of an animal’s existence – on perfection of its organization. There can be such an organization of a country that it not only will preserve itself but also will prevail against all others organized otherwise. In the same way, a successful animal can become a prevailing type.

 Let us – conventionally – name a primitive spirit ‘aether’. What is its destiny? It roams all over the Universe and whatever its state, the same is state of an atom. Whatever destiny of one atom is, the same is destiny of all.

 So, to know destiny of an atom, we must know destiny of the Universe. It also is reflected in higher human creatures and that is why is known to them.

 It is science with its conclusions, that is a reflection of space. Intellect and feelings are the source of science.

 Every mature mind says the same: if there will be no evil, sorrow, imperfection, ignorance, weakness and insanity in the Universe, it will be good for an atom as well.

 The conclusion from the above-mentioned is the following: everything which is bad, causes suffering or multiplies insanity must be eliminated from the Universe. But eliminated without cruelty to anything being destroyed. How to do it? Very easily – reproduction of the imperfect should be stopped. There are many methods to achieve it.

 Alternatively, it is necessary to focus all forces of intelligent higher creatures on facilitating reproduction of everything perfect. Let the world be filled by it – as quickly as possible – and let the intellect, which brings happiness and annihilates sorrow, dominate in the world.

* Destiny of an unknown simplest one depends on participation of the atoms known to science. (Rus – Участь неизвестного простейшего зависит от участия известных науке атомов.)

Translator’s note: There are grounds for believing that there might be a typo in one word of the original Russian phrase which changes its meaning considerably. If it is so, the phrase is “Участь неизвестного простейшего зависит от участи известных науке атомов” and its English translation is the following: Destiny of an unknown simplest one depends on destiny of the atoms known to science.

 

book2You have read the article by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

You can download it for free in PDF format from the “The Collection of Works” section of the website. Unfortunately, most of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s works have not been translated into English. You can familiarize yourself with the works in Russian from the “Научное наследие” (“Scientific heritage”) section of the website.

Enjoy the reading!

 

 

“Evaluation of people”

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“Evaluation of people”, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, 1934

 

Let us start with the most sublime. Only history serves us as a guide.

Let us distribute people on grounds of their value, starting from the top.

 Love of a few, hate of many and indifference of the majority. Their destiny is, having done their duty, to die young due to the high and mighties. A cross, a guillotine, gallows, a bullet, all sorts of torture – that is their fate. They leave neither wives, nor offspring (Giordano Bruno).

 Hundreds and thousands of years pass, and fame of the tortured grows, their influence continues after their death. It yields majestic beneficent results. Humankind raise them to the rank of gods.

 Some of the despised, persecuted, arrested, sentenced to penal servitude, but nevertheless dying a natural death. Their dignity grows from the day of their death and reaches a high value many centuries after (Hamilton, Kepler).

 And here are genii of a bit lower rank. They are not killed, not tortured to death, but forgotten. Their works are rejected, or decay in cellars. Hundreds of years after their death they are accidentally unveiled. Dignity of a forgotten genius is restored. It also increases with centuries. Leave no offspring (Mendel).

 And here is the fourth level of extraordinary people. These obtain some fame at the end of life. Youth spent in pain, frustration, poverty, in prisons. But they die a natural death, although deprivation, exhaustion, humiliation and hunger significantly shorten their lives. Leave no offspring. Examples: Kepler, Copernicus, Galileo, Mendeleev, Lamarck. Their fame is much greater after death. It grows from century to century.

 We also have people who reach success in middle age. They endure a lot as well, but glory and correct assessment come earlier. They are comforted and rewarded with it, although in old age. Often they reach wealth and power by the end of life. Their lineage continues rarely.

 At the sixth level of outstanding people we see the following: quick success in youth, honor and wealth. Their works are highly valued after death as well, but do not live for hundreds of years. Offspring, if any, is miserable.

 The seventh level: loud practical success, career, conquests, throne. Highly praised only while alive. Estimation is ambivalent. After death, it falls and reaches negative value.

 The eighth level: slight success; deeds are useful, though moderate. Forgotten after death. Leave offspring.

 The ninth level: illusory success. Glory of a writer, inventor, artist, scientist. But, alas, they are still alive when contemporaries are disappointed in them. These unhappy ones outlive their fame. They are soap-bubbles.

 

book2You have read the article by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

You can download it for free in PDF format from the “The Collection of Works” section of the website. Unfortunately, most of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s works have not been translated into English. You can familiarize yourself with the works in Russian from the “Научное наследие” (“Scientific heritage”) section of the website.

Enjoy the reading!

 

 

“Creatures from Different Stages of Evolution”

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“Creatures from Different Stages of Evolution”, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

 

A molecule, according to our hypothesis, is an infinitely complex matter. Creatures known to us – as well as those who supposedly live close to suns and on planets – are composed or built from molecules of different types (oxygen, hydrogen, iron, carbon, etc.). Let’s look back to the past and imagine the Universe billions of decillions – or as many as you like – years ago. At that time molecules were less complex, and there were other planets, other suns and other creatures, composed from these more simple molecules. When forming chemical compounds, they emitted light of other kind, which now is invisible for us; it couldn’t be perceived by our organs of sight because the size of ether waves was smaller at that time and ether environment was different – thinner and more resilient. Creatures of those days were less dense but they also were subject to evolution, they also struggled for existence; they also became – ages ago – the acme of perfection, and they became immortal rulers of the world, they achieved what humans still are to achieve and what space dwellers akin to us have already achieved, and they obtained bliss.

Could they manage to survive up to now and are they living among us invisible? Or maybe they decomposed, giving birth to creatures of our visible world?

This issue is rather difficult to tackle. A philosopher would say that the origin of matter is common; however, matter, undergoing continuous and, as it seems, simultaneous evolution, exists it in the great number of kinds: from dense metals to ether, which is trillions of times less dense.

If the previous types of unorganized matter somehow managed to preserve, having no intelligence, all the more reason sentient beings could preserve.

Bacteria and the other Protista have existed for ages, but they gave birth to other beings, including humans. But do invisible suns, planets and creatures surround us, like bacteria, which only now humans are able to see? Where do these higher ones live?

Do they inhabit only certain corners of Universe or are they dissipated everywhere and can live wherever they want? What are their properties? Do they have any connections with currently existing creatures? Do they represent the beginning of life for humans and celestial creatures – related to them, although perfect? Or do they represent their soul (or its part)? Do they for some purpose possess animals or humans at conception? Odd questions with no answers. All the same, let’s try to answer the last question, i.e. do these creatures of the past serve as a foundation of a man, do they enter his body at birth and do they represent his soul with its properties?

But, firstly, all properties of a man’s body and soul find explanation in morphology of his body and brain. And even if not all of them are explained yet, we can hope that in future they will be.

Secondly, if these beings enliven a man, it is difficult to deny the same to an animal. At conception all of them must be inhabited by spirits from earlier days. It looks rather odd! Why do they need suffer in animal and human bodies?! And, finally, why then a man or an animal does not become perfect (in its way) immediately, if a spirit inhabits him at birth? Why a baby is not so clever, as an adult? Why do we acquire intelligence by means of schooling and labor? How does perfection of spirit always depend on the type of animals and perfection of their organs? (To explain this, there is a lousy hypothesis about prestabilism). Why does with destruction of organs spirit weaken as well? Why a higher spirit doesn’t take possession of some fly and turn it into Newton?

It seems to me – well, I do believe – at least my philosophy tells me that special creatures incomprehensible for us exist – but they do not live in our bodies, neither they live in bodies of plants and animals.

Only primitive ignorance could make up such a hypothesis to explain phenomena of life when morphology of living creatures wasn’t studied at all…

So, in regard to our world we come back to atomism with its potential for life…

Imagine a “dead” planet; it has just covered with a hard crust, which becomes the cradle of life. Life develops, spreads and covers the surface of a celestial body. So it was on every planet, number of which is infinite.

Now imagine an incandescent planet shining like a sun. It consists of mixture of thin gases. What could be inside it?! What life could exist here?! It looks as though there is none. But our little sun cools off and inevitably becomes filled with life. If life appears there, it did exist before – but in other, simpler, form. Everything is alive – in its own way. We cannot understand all. Life is continuous, and so is everything.

Sometimes it makes abrupt jumps (the phenomenon of “death”) – but that’s all. In fact, a country sometimes falls suddenly. Sometimes it takes a higher form, and sometimes spirals into utter chaos: its members are beaten unmercifully, taken captive, et cetera.

It is impossible for any location to have no matter, no time, and no space. They are endless, unceasing and eternal. Also, it is impossible for any spot to have no life. Life is also eternal, continuous and omnipresent.

Let’s now step back, taking a mental look at the time decillions of years before ours, – why not take such a step – or much longer one – back! At that time matter and molecules were even simpler and creatures were even less dense. They made up the third world, not visible even to the second one, which, certainly, cannot be perceived by our sense organs so far.

Whatever number of such steps we did, however far we leaped through decillions of years, to the beginning of the world, we would never reach it – we would be as distant from it, as we previously were. This follows from our hypotheses of time being beginningless and matter being endlessly divisible. While proceeding back by giant time steps, we meet more and more new worlds of living and intelligent creatures, endless gradations of generations, becoming more and more ethereal. There is no end to these snapshots, like there is no end to time – either to past, or to future.

Could it be true that all these creatures transformed – like less dense matter transforms into denser one? How come reasonable creatures appeared to be less powerful than unorganized matter, which preserved, as I have already said, in different densities!

If part of them remained, aren’t these creatures simpler, like bacteria are simpler than animals and humans? No answer to this question as well.

I think that both simple and sophisticated ones – more sophisticated than humans and even their perfect descendants – could have remained. Assuming transformation or destruction of some of them, it is difficult to assume that all of them underwent transforming or destruction – how could it happen, whilst there are lots of categories?!

If they preserved, are they connected with one another, do one serve, as we already mentioned, as foundation for subsequent ones? These questions are tough, but everything is possible.

Are these creatures servants of space, and should we be the same? How society of every category is organized? Are there upper and lower creatures among them?

This is a quote from my “Ethics”. In support of these ideas, we have a great number of facts, collected by trustworthy people. These facts suggest presence of some forces, some reasonable beings, interfering into our human life. They cannot be always explained from the point of modern science, relying on forces of nature known to us, not supposing existence of a special intelligent force.

Frankly speaking, until recently I, staggered by brilliant light of science, denied all mysterious phenomena and explained them either by known natural laws or by hallucinations, deception, conjuring tricks, forgetfulness, ignorance, by effect of sickliness, et cetera. Now I think that more than 99% of these phenomena are exactly such, as I considered them before. But not all of them. Some very small part of them, despite being natural, cannot be explained without intervention from reasonable forces, originating from conscious creatures unknown to us. Some of these creatures are similar to us (my monism), they only are more perfect, and we will be like them (evolution), other ones consist of more light elements, which dominated decillions of decillions years ago. It is difficult to determine what kind of these creatures interferes into our life. It is simpler to suppose participation of beings similar to us – which developed from creatures as imperfect as we currently are.

Certainly, it does not contradict with known forces of nature, but until now we denied possibility that other creatures could participate in earthly life.

The concept of it was the following. Humankind is tied down to Earth. Its destiny is to remain in such a state forever. Destiny of other creatures on other planets is the same. The general idea of development of a man and his power was limited. We hardly can imagine anything higher than earthly creatures in terms of qualities and technology. That is why, having such a restricted outlook, we deny possibility of other creatures’ interference into earthly affairs. This error is a minor one. It is not in the drawbacks of science, but only in narrow-mindedness of conclusions driven from it. Plenty of the phenomena from this narrow point of view remain inexplicable. <…>

 

book2You have read the article by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

You can download it for free in PDF format from the “The Collection of Works” section of the website. Unfortunately, most of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s works have not been translated into English. You can familiarize yourself with the works in Russian from the “Научное наследие” (“Scientific heritage”) section of the website.

Enjoy the reading!

 

 

“Creatures higher than a Man”

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“Creatures higher than a Man”, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, 1939

 

Development (phylogenesis) of organic world have not ceased on the Earth, especially development of a man. A thousand of years ago he was not the same as he is now, 5,000 years back – he was even simpler, 10,000 years back he was close to animals, and 100,000 years ago he was a relative of apes. Going further back, we will reach mammals, reptiles, fishes, worms and bacteria.

 And a man has passed through all these stages, before he became the nowaday “tsar” of animals. It is clear that in 1000, 10,000 years he will be a different creature, of a higher type. Since before we saw only his progress in regard to weight, complexity, intelligence, knowledge and power, in future we could not expect it to be otherwise. So, we expect for higher creatures on the Earth. On a million of billions of another planets there also must be animals. What are they? On the Earth their height depends on their generical (phylogenetic) age, and so is on another planets. But age of the Earth is extraordinarily young, particularly, age of humankind. Babies, in general, are the fewer in numbers, the less they have lived. So, there are not so many of such infantile planets as Earth in the Universe. Most of planets, in particular, their humankind, have attained mature age, so will the Earth – in course of time.

 In this mature age, animals must be perfect as to body, feelings, mind, knowledge and power.

 This power must be enormous. Even now a Man hopes not only to subdue nature, but also to travel among planets and stars of the Universe, so how inconceivably high will his real power be – and, the more so, power of mature planetary creatures?

 Here you are: the first category of higher animals; almost all creatures in the Universe are of this kind.

 But these creatures are not identical; the same as animals and people on our planet are different. All people will be high, but the degree of this highness is far from being unvaried. Similarly, perfection of habitants of any planet is not equal: the select few are higher than ordinary ones. But on each of the planets there are different levels of selection – someway, different “commanders”. All these people vary in degree of merit. The highest degree will belong to the very last one, chosen from the chosen, the most eligible creature of the planet. He, together with a council, manages the entire planet. How high must he be?! It will happen on the Earth; it took place on vast majority of planets long ago.

 Here you have the second large stage of higher animals of the Universe. But every planet is tiny in comparison to the space surrounding a sun. A planet uses one-billionth part of sunbeams’ energy. Why waste it?! Might of planetary habitants allows them to use all the radiation energy of their sun. They take possession of circum-solar deserts, build their dwellings there, adapt to new conditions and propagate conformable to surrounding solar energy. Their population increases billionfold compared with that on the Earth. At the same time grows the number of successive elections, and so does perfection of the last one elected, i.e. the president of a solar system.

 Well, here you have the third large stage of higher creatures: rulers of solar systems. The number of them in the known Universe (space) must be equal to the number of suns, i.e. a million of billions.

 Wouldn’t the nearby groups of suns unite? They can have joint activities and elect a council with its head.

 Spiral nebulae (milky ways) can also unite and provide electees of their own. The entire Universe can unite under leadership of one creature.

 You may say: it takes a stream of light 200 million years to travel from one end-most spiral nebula to other one, which is at the diametrically opposite point, i.e. through all known Universe. What kind of communications can be here, what decisions, what instructions? They are always late, and it is better to deal with issues locally, in local council, for example, planetary or solar one.

 But, firstly, time is a relative concept for any creatures – what is much for us, for others is nullity. Secondly, aren’t there any agents more resilient than luciferous ether, known to us? This new environment can distribute radiation energy millions and billions of times quicker than known ether. Time is endless. Consistent with it, surprises of the Universe also are infinitely various, wonderful and never-ending.

 Of course, all these creatures influence one another and exist in mutual dependence. On every mature planet most authority – with an ordinary citizen – has a (conditionally speaking) rural council, which the citizen personally votes for, and its president. Less influence is exerted by the president elected not by him, but by subordinate presidents he elected, etc. The least interference into affairs comes from the supreme president of the planet. But planetary presidents are not totally free: planetary affairs are sometimes influenced by the solar council, etc. The most rare intrusion hails from the general president of known Universe. We do not know, what sort of intrusion of an endlessly unknown Universe it is – but it probably exists, although it is possible to say that it is extremely rare. In general, the mightier and higher the leader is, the rarer his power shows up. But yet his power is unimaginably great.

 

book2You have read the article by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

You can download it for free in PDF format from the “The Collection of Works” section of the website. Unfortunately, most of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s works have not been translated into English. You can familiarize yourself with the works in Russian from the “Научное наследие” (“Scientific heritage”) section of the website.

Enjoy the reading!

 

 

“Conditional Truth”

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“Conditional Truth”, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, 1932

 

There is no real (absolute) truth, because it is based upon total comprehension of space. But there is no such total comprehension, and there will never be. Science that gives knowledge continuously moves forward, it rejects or asserts the old and finds out the new. Every century changes science – does not reject, just changes its content more or less, deleting one and adding other. There will be no end to this process, as there is no end to centuries and to development of brain.

 So, it means that truth can only be conditional, temporal and variable.

 Religious faiths name their dogmas truth. But can any faith be truth? Faiths number in thousands. They conflict with one another, are often disproved by science and that is why cannot be taken even for conditional truth. Political beliefs also disagree more or less. Therefore, we will say the same about them. Philosophical musings created world-views. Their disagreement also compels us to view them as personal opinions. Some philosophers accepted nothing but exact scientific knowledge for their conclusions. But, similarly, their conclusions do not deserve the name of conditional truth, because did not agree inter se. Finally, there is not a single person that would not understand truth in his own way. So many men, so many truths. How can it be truth!

 However, we should initially agree about what we want to denote by conditional truth.

 Philosophers, sages and scientists, certainly, assist distribution of knowledge about the Universe and thereby refine people’s idea of conditional truth.

 Conditional truth can be global, national, town, district, community, village, family and personal.

 Personal conditional truth is what a man acquires in various ways and considers to be the best, the most correct and the most fair. Generally, it is the lowest sort of conditional truth. It changes with age and experience of a man. Village truth is the one which a village is ready to accept and submit to.

 How can it be? A village, with a considerable majority vote (0.6, 0.7, 0.8, etc.), elects a person from this social environment whom it considers to be the highest in all respects. The village authorizes him to produce a code of truth, as far as he is able to do it. The approved code will be conditional village truth. Certainly, it changes with the change of the person elected. This truth yet stands some higher than personal views of ordinary villagers. I mean averages.

 Electees from a few villages, who live together and know one another, authorize a special person from their environment, whom they consider the most intelligent, to search for truth. Thus a community truth is worked out.

 Now it is clear how to create conditional truths: town, national and global.

 All these truths will be conditional ones, because they disagree with one another, they are variable and imperfect. It is obvious that the highest truth will be global one, which is obtained by a man elected from all people, i.e. by all nationalities.

 Maybe, some of personal truths (in general, those of the lowest sort) in fact will appear higher than the highest of the selected ones. But nobody can declare and prove it. And that is why for people truth would be what has been selected by their representative.

 A man accepts only what he understands. Anything extra, enforced upon him, in his own eyes is confusion and violence, even if he is a thousand times wrong.

 In point of fact, we have no authority to impose our personal truth on him, even truth of a city or country. He requires truth of the entire world, even of the whole Universe, if only it were possible.

 The imposed truth will violate the world, provoke disagreement and dissatisfaction.

 So, conditional higher truth is the truth generated by a village, then by a community, district, town, region, nation and, finally, by the electee from all nations.

 How can I pass off my persuasions as truth and employ violence for this reason, if this truth has not been ratified by the whole world.

 In such a way leaders, emperors, conquerors, and others behaved – and were mistaken. We should not follow them; we should humbly step back and let all the humankind elect and determine the truth.

 It is only necessary that every society, having chosen the best person, had him periodically before their eyes and carried out incessant evaluation of him: if he changes to the worst – away with him at once.

 For this person to be in the public eye all the time, there should be several electees from a group: one manage the community, and other go to elections to the top of society. Every electee spends a half of his time in his society, and a half in the higher one.

 It is also needed that the high society should not be able to exclude him without consent of the lower. Certainly, the number of members of every community must be relatively small. So, the members can know each other, evaluate one another’s merit and make a right choice. From this point of view, the smaller the number of members, the better. But however, there should not be less than 100-1,000 of them. For this, average human memory and observancy will suffice.

 There is no such thing as reasonable elections anywhere in the entire world. But if there were, our planetary truth would hardly be the highest. In practice, individual truth still takes control of the humankind. Hence the source of violence against humankind. This truth, on occasion, can be much higher than the common planetary one, and that is why can seemingly be justified. Here it looks like a supreme person rescues the rest of the humankind by force. In the same way a shepherd drives a herd and protects it from predators. Notionally it is conceivable, and something of the kind happens in history.

 

book2You have read the article by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

You can download it for free in PDF format from the “The Collection of Works” section of the website. Unfortunately, most of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s works have not been translated into English. You can familiarize yourself with the works in Russian from the “Научное наследие” (“Scientific heritage”) section of the website.

Enjoy the reading!

 

 

“Doubtfulness of Any Philosophy”

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1934

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

The collection of works by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, translated into English

My ideas on the universe seem to be the only science-based ones to me.

It is subjective indeed.

Let us assume that I am wise. But there have been a great number of wise men of other epochs. And all of them were under a delusion and did not possess complete truth.

The same I think about myself as well – on the basis of this historical truth. The one thing I am sure is that ideas of mine are not harmful for people: for believers and nonbelievers (i.e. people of pure science) alike.

In fact –

  1.  Immortality, as theosophists, occultists, et al. understand it, is based on that a pig remains a pig, a wolf remains a wolf, a thief remains a thief or a bit better (a logical concept of the soul).
  2. Scientific immortality is in the following: every animal, imperfect human and every matter can re-emerge only as a perfect creature or as plants and similar organisms insensible to pain, in each case they subsist in nothingness, i.e. in inanimate matter, where there is no time, no senses – and billions of years pass unnoticed, as though there are none, and they cannot frighten us.

What is better?

The answer is clear.

If I will be believed, it will be to the good.

Joy will extend life

 

book2

Would you like to read other works of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky?

Read them online in English or download them for free in PDF format on the page “Scientific Heritage” of the website.

Read them online in the original Russian or download them free of charge in PDF format on the page “Научное наследие” of the website.

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“Necessity of Cosmic Mindset”

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1934

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

The collection of works by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, translated into English

All matter in the Universe is mixed up. A man OR OTHER creature is matter, so IT roams all over the Universe. Destiny of a creature depends on destiny of the Universe. Therefore, every reasonable being must enter into the spirit of history of the Universe. Such a supreme worldview is essential. A narrow POINT OF VIEW can lead to a delusion. Thus, until now people disbelieved cosmic interaction of matter and creatures. They considered the Earth to be isolated and independent from space. The Space seemed not to exist for the Earth. Only the Sun and the Earth were taken into account, and sometimes the solar system and a few bright stars. And now we, even present-day wise men, realized that the Earth is in a sad plight, made incorrect pessimistic conclusions about the fate of mankind and animals on the earth: all is bad, all is imperfect, all is painful, cruel and abysmal. A human being is moved by rough egoism of his short earthly life: grab what you can – that’s the cleverest thing for him.

What is more, philosophers spread such a view of the Earth to all space. At least, practical thinkers (positivists) ignored it as non-existent or not related to the Earth. All these trillions of suns and planets meant nothing for it.

 Here we present a number of cosmic axioms, which can elucidate destiny of space, and, accordingly, destiny of a man, animals, plants and inanimate world.

“Necessity of Cosmic mindset”, K. Tsiolkovsky, 1934.

 

book2

Would you like to read other works of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky?

Read them online in English or download them for free in PDF format on the page “Scientific Heritage” of the website.

Read them online in the original Russian or download them free of charge in PDF format on the page “Научное наследие” of the website.

Enjoy reading them!

 

 

 

“Preface to All My Works”

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1932

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

The collection of works by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, translated into English

“In my works I avoid mentioning other works of similar kind. But it absolutely does not mean that I value only works of my own and do not appreciate other toilers of science. Everything I write is certainly inspired by reading books and works by other authors. My conduct is caused not by egoism, not by excessive conceit, but by wish to smoothen things down for both myself and a reader by not piling up names and references.

 This is evidenced by the fact that I am ready to retract any claim of priority, whatever I wrote. Let everything be considered borrowings – no hard feelings on my part; and I even already do not recourse to patenting or claiming my priority.

 Even if I am the last among people of science, it does not offend me.”

 

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Would you like to read other works of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky?

Read them online in English or download them for free in PDF format on the page “Scientific Heritage” of the website.

Read them online in the original Russian or download them free of charge in PDF format on the page “Научное наследие” of the website.

Enjoy reading them!

 

 

 

About the keeper of the scientist’s personal archive

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The keeper of the personal archive of Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (1857 – 1935), inventor and scientist, is Archive of Russian Academy of Sciences.

 The personal archive of Tsiolkovsky (fund #555) consists of 5 inventories, containing 1979 folders with 31680 sheets of various documents.

 The information resource called ‘Tsiolkovsky Archive’ was developed by Department of insurance documentary fund from the Archive of Russian Academy of Sciences. It is a database, describing one of the sections of the users’ microfiche fund of the Archive of Russian Academy of Sciences – namely, the personal archive of a famous Russian inventor and scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

 To provide specialists, interested in this material, with navigation and search capabilities, appropriate applications were developed. Such fields in the records, as ‘file #’, ‘file name’, ‘type of material’, ‘document creation date’ allow users to effectively navigate in all the variety of documents and carry out search for interesting sections, order copies of documents from the fund keeper.

 Presently, 100% of the documents in the archive is digitalized and are available to all users. The total number of documents equals 31680 pages.

 Creation of ‘Tsiolkovsky Archive’ information resource are carried out within the framework of the program called ‘Integration of information resources of Archive of Russian Academy of Sciences into the Portal of Russian Academy of Sciences’.

Tsiolkovsky`s Cosmic Philosophy

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Tsiolkovsky stated that he developed the theory of rocketry only as a supplement to philosophical research on the subject.

He wrote more than 400 works, most of which are little known to the general reader.

Tsiolkovsky wrote a book called “The Will of the Universe”. The Unknown Intelligence in 1928 in which he propounded a philosophy of panpsychism. He believed humans would eventually colonize the Milky Way galaxy.

This was the very beginning of Tsiolkovsky’s research into space flight problems and was the basis for it. His main work of this subject was “Ethics or the Natural Foundations of Morality” (1902-1918). In 1932 Tsiolkovsky wrote “The Cosmic Philosophy” – the summary of his philosophical ideas. His main idea was to achieve happiness not only for humanity, but also for all the living beings in the Cosmos, for all the Universe. According to Tsiolkovsky’s Cosmic Philosophy, “happiness” is the absence of all kind of suffering in all the Universe, for all times, as well as the absence of all of the processes for destroying goodness. How shall we start this evolution to the “Universal Happiness”? The main task is to study the main laws which rule the Universe. To do so, we must study the Universe, and therefore we must learn how to live in outer space. To begin that long period of our evolution, we will have to design large manned space rockets. So, the first space flight will be the beginning of the new era of space exploration, the beginning of Space Culture in human history. It will be the beginning of our history itself.

Tsiolkovsky was very much as interested in the philosophy of space as he was with the engineering needed to make space flight possible. This was the very beginning of Tsiolkovsky’s research into space flight problems and was the basis for it. His main work of this subject was “Ethics or the Natural Foundations of Morality” (1902-1918). In 1932 Tsiolkovsky wrote “The Cosmic Philosophy” – the summary of his philosophical ideas. His main idea was to achieve happiness not only for humanity, but also for all the living beings in the Cosmos, for all the Universe. He believed that human occupation of space was inevitable and would drive human evolution.

According to Tsiolkovsky’s Cosmic Philosophy, “happiness” is the absence of all kind of suffering in all the Universe, for all times, as well as the absence of all of the processes for destroying goodness. How shall we start this evolution to the “Universal Happiness”? The main task is to study the laws which rule the Universe. To do so, we must study the Universe, and therefore we must learn how to live in outer space. To begin that long period of our evolution, we will have to design large manned space rockets. So, the first space flight will be the beginning of the new era of space exploration, the beginning of Space Culture in human history. It will be the beginning of our history itself. He truly believed that it was the destiny of humankind to occupy the solar system and then to expand into the depth of the cosmos, living off the energy of the stars to create a cosmic civilization that would master nature, abolish natural catastrophes, and achieve happiness for all.