Electronic library of the International Center of the Roerichs. Space philosophy

...Citizen of Space ...Childhood and deafness ...Thirst for knowledge
...Marriage and Sexual Energy ...An Unusual School Teacher
...Food - black bread and water ...Cosmic philosophy
...Ignorance of science and flight into space ...Radiant man of the Earth

Tsiolkovsky is known to everyone as the father of astronautics and the inventor of the rocket. He was the first in the world to prove that it is possible to fly into space.

But he was not only a brilliant inventor, but also a brave thinker who developed his “cosmic philosophy”, the ideas of which expand the boundaries of living space and open the way for humanity to the vast expanses of Space.

“The new citizen of the Universe Konstantin Tsiolkovsky,” as he called himself. He was born on September 17, 1857 in the village of Izhevskoye, Spassky district, Ryazan province, in the family of a forester, a Russified Pole, one of whose ancestors was the “rebel Nalivaiko.” The father, a man of “strong and difficult character for those around him,” passed on to his son his passion for invention and extraordinary willpower. His mother, with an admixture of Tatar blood, a sanguine nature, passionate, benevolent, endowed with a beautiful voice, passed on to him her general, as Tsiolkovsky put it, “talent.”

From the vague depths of his childhood memory, Konstantin Eduardovich catches a special touch of his nature, “he loved to dream and even paid younger brother so that he listens to my nonsense."

At the age of ten, Kostya suffers misfortune: a severe cold, scarlet fever and, as a result, almost complete deafness. The shock of this sudden injury was so strong that the boy, until the age of 14, plunged into a “period of unconsciousness”; there was a stop in development, almost a regression into early “vegetative” childhood. But something in him was half-consciously accumulating and preparing for awakening. An interesting detail of these years: the manifestation of sleepwalking. From the age of 14 - a sudden interest in textbooks on mathematics and physics (everything in them turned out to be completely accessible) and a surge of enthusiastic and successful invention; This prompted Konstantin’s father, who believed in his son’s unusual technical abilities, to send him, by that time a 16-year-old high school student, to Moscow.

The young man himself is driven by a thirst for knowledge, the need to create ever more sophisticated machines that expand the power of man, his power over matter and space. Tsiolkovsky’s physical damage itself became an internal impulse for development, for transcending oneself, for ascending not only to the ordinary, but also to the super-ordinary level. A semi-deaf eccentric, with overgrown hair, trousers burned here and there from chemical experiments, half-starved (all the money sent by his father goes to reagents), Konstantin has been regularly since 1873, first to the Chertkovskaya library, the only public Moscow library, then to the newly opened Rumyantsevskaya library.

In 1897, Konstantin Eduardovich passed an external examination for the title of teacher of arithmetic and geometry with the right to teach in district schools. The outer outline of his existence was unpretentiously and monotonously woven from year to year: teaching in schools, and Tsiolkovsky loved his service, being able to ignite the curiosity of his students with witty experiments and technical things of his own making; material concerns about a large family, where his daughters were spiritually closest to him, and most importantly - the continuous work of thought and imagination, constant experiments, invention, design, reading and composing his own works (scientific and theoretical, artistic fiction, natural science).

How did his personal life turn out?

He got married at 23, as an aspiring teacher. His wife was the daughter of a priest, Varvara Evgrafovna Sokolova. He chose his girlfriend once and for all. Later, almost 40 years later, in 1919, in his autobiography “Fate, Fate, Fate,” he admits: “I put my works in the foreground, I was chock-full of unearthly things, I was passionate about the Gospel. At the same time, I had a passionate nature, I constantly fell in love until I was 60 years old, but this did not prevent me from maintaining chastity; all the novels were of the most platonic nature. But ideas still replaced passions. I decided to marry without love to a kind, hardworking girl who could not interfere with my aspirations.

Getting to know future wife began with a conversation and was amazed by her understanding of the Gospel. She agreed with me that the Galilean carpenter (Jesus Christ) was a man, only of an extraordinary mind, but not God.

It was time to get married, and I married her, hoping that such a wife would not twist me around, would work and would not prevent me from doing the same. Such a friend could not drain my strength. I had innate asceticism and I helped it in every possible way. I was not deceived in my wife. But the sexual feeling of heart dissatisfaction, the strongest of all passions, forced my mind and strength to strain and search. To the eternal humiliation of deafness was added a continuously operating unsatisfied feeling of the heart. These two forces drove me in life in a way that no fictitious, artificial or pedagogical means could have driven me.”

In the philosophical treatises given by the Teachers of Wisdom, it is said that the sexual energy of the lower centers, not spent on satisfying sexual passion, rising to the higher centers, is transmuted into higher creativity. There are many examples of this from the lives of geniuses.

Continuing to talk about his personal life, K.E. writes: “So she (my wife) and I retained our strength and ability for mental activity until a very old age.”

“Is it good to have a married life without love? Is respect enough in a marriage? For those who have given themselves to higher desires, this is good. But he sacrifices his happiness and even the happiness of his family. I didn’t understand the latter at the time. But then it was discovered. Children from such marriages are not healthy, successful and joyful.”

Academic marriage, as Tsiolkovsky put it, played the role of a catalyst for his creativity. Deafness from childhood, poverty, lack of formal education - strengthened his desire to realize himself, to do the great thing for which he came to Earth. Konstantin Eduardovich believed that it was thanks to such circumstances that he reached scientific heights and became a man of world renown.

Tsiolkovsky developed the theory of improving humanity through liberation from passions of various kinds and painted a picture of the development of more perfect human qualities. “The mind has grown so much that now man could, apparently, exist without the lower means of being, i.e. animal passions or instincts... He could live and be happy without passions. Many people cannot do without passions because their minds and wills are weak.”

He said that a happy life is “not mortal peace, but a life rich in deeds, great deeds.”

In 1892, a teacher of physics and mathematics, Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, settled in Kaluga. He was transferred from the district town of Borovsk to the provincial town as a good and conscientious teacher.

Among the Kaluga residents he was considered strange and even mysterious man. I never played cards or lotto, never visited anyone. How can you waste valuable time on these meaningless activities! Life is so short, and he has so many plans. Even in church, he appeared only when his superiors reminded him about it. If they had found out that Tsiolkovsky was an unbeliever, he would have been immediately kicked out of the teaching staff.

Tsiolkovsky devoted all his free time from classes to his scientific work - making models, conducting experiments, writing books, studying the works of scientists.

They said about him that he was an atheist, proud, an eccentric, and that he did not behave as a teacher should. Do decent gentlemen do dirty work artisans? And even on holidays, Tsiolkovsky gets up just before dawn, without praying to God, immediately picks up his instruments and forgets about everything in the world.

He had a period in his life when he completely did not pay attention to his appearance, - walked in winter without stockings, sold for the purchase of chemical reagents, in pants with yellow spots and holes from the same reagents, wore long hair because there was no time to get a haircut. He ate only black bread and water and did not think about the fact that he was starving.

“And in this man’s house it’s not like other people’s – there are pieces of iron, wire, and tools everywhere. Even in the holy corner, under the icons, there is some kind of iron monster with a swollen belly. He says it’s “di-ri-ja-ba.” Forgive me, Lord, you can’t say it right away! In a word. Some kind of iron thing. Does she really belong with the faces of saints? Once a priest came in with a prayer service and was horrified: it was dirty holy place, was offended and did not pray. They say that this man planned to fly across the sky. Are you crazy or something?

Yes, everything that Tsiolkovsky was doing then was so unusual that it was difficult for ordinary people to even imagine that normal people could do it. In Kaluga at that time, rarely did anyone hear about balloons and airships, but there’s nothing to say about airplanes. Kaluga residents saw the first airplane only in 1912. And who among them could believe that their city dweller teacher Tsiolkovsky made calculations for an airship and an airplane of a special, most advanced design, and even planned rocket flights to other worlds! Nobody would believe it.

Throughout his life, he did not earn any money from his scientific research; he even received royalties from magazines in reprints of his own articles. He worked alone and had no staff. Using his teacher's salary and later his pension, the scientist supported his family, published scientific brochures, and conducted experiments, sometimes expensive. He did a fantastic amount, but wanted to do even more. His testing ground was a desk in a modest office and an ordinary home workshop with a lathe and a simple set of tools.

His circle of contacts was very narrow, only with people of unusual interests, short rest, walking, skating, cycling. Young Alexander Chizhevsky, who later became a prominent scientist and thinker, who closely communicated with him in Kaluga, recalls his special love for Central Russian nature. In the bosom of her lonely walks, according to Tsiolkovsky, all his best ideas appeared, which he then only wrote down or implemented.

Kaluga Country Garden (now Tsiolkovsky Park) was Konstantin Eduardovich’s favorite place. There, under the tall linden trees, it is always quiet and cool.

At the age of 45, he bought an old bicycle for the occasion, learned to ride it in two days, and rode a bicycle almost until his death. The bicycle gave the scientist the joy of communicating with nature. The brooding landscapes of the surrounding Kaluga awakened the imagination, helped to think and dream. Enjoying them, one could forget for a while the misunderstanding and indifference of people.

In addition, the usual walk along the outskirts of the pine forest, the pride of the local area, became a good preparation for the intense evening work. Further on, the pines gave way to oaks, and here, at the edge of the oak grove, he sat down on his favorite stump and rested.

The trees whispered behind him, and a calm green expanse lay ahead. The vastness of the green plain evoked dreams of the vastness of the Universe and its unexplored secrets.

Our Earth is good! Warm and affectionate to those who love her. Earth is the cradle of humanity. And like any cradle it is soft and cozy. But the child grows up and leaves his cradle. Humanity will also not be able to remain on Earth forever. Having matured, it will break into the vastness of the Universe and make the entire solar space its home. And then... But you need to take the first step along this road. After all, the first step is the most difficult.

He, a modest provincial teacher, had recently completed preparations for this step. In his work “Exploration of world spaces using jet instruments,” he gave a scientific substantiation and calculation of the mathematical formulas by which the movement of an interplanetary spacecraft should be carried out. Let the flight into outer space not happen soon.

But whenever this happens, humanity will not ignore the calculations made in this work. (Later, it was these calculations of his that served to create modern rocket technology, which made the flights of our cosmonauts possible).

If the interplanetary spacecraft moves at a speed of at least 8 versts per second, then it will rise beyond the atmosphere and become a satellite of the Earth like the Moon, because at this speed, the centrifugal force will balance the gravitational force of the Earth.

And if the movement occurs at a speed of at least 12 versts per second, then the projectile will finally overcome the gravity of the Earth, will be carried into near-solar space and, wandering there among the planets and meteors, will become a satellite of the Sun, like our Earth or Mars. If you carefully calculate the flight time and its trajectory, then such a ship will be able to reach Mars or Venus. If you increase the speed even more, the jet ship will break out of the solar system and go to other stars. All this is true, and any person who knows mathematics will agree with these calculations. They are undeniable.

But how to achieve these speeds, how to implement these formulas?

He, Tsiolkovsky, understood and proved that they are achievable if they are applied to a rocket with liquid fuel. He created his own formula according to which the rocket ship would move. It's now a matter of technical implementation. And it will come. Technology is constantly moving forward.

The time will come and artificial satellites will fly around the Earth. People will start to master outer space and will become the owners of its limitless energy wealth.

Tsiolkovsky thought with sadness that although many scientists had read this work of his, it surprised and frightened them with its unusual thoughts and calculations. They simply remained silent, not daring to express their opinion. Apparently they considered his conclusions premature or unnecessary.

And in fact, people are just learning to fly over the surface of the Earth, and he has already raised his eyes to other planets and stars! Are we reaching the stars here?!

There is an ocean of ignorance and poverty all around, the people are downtrodden and illiterate, and he, Tsiolkovsky, is thinking about interplanetary travel!..

But he can’t help but think about them! This is his passion and calling. Of course, Tsiolkovsky will not live to see the day when the proud interplanetary spacecraft of the Earth will rush into space. Life is short and can easily be cut short by a stupid accident or illness, but humanity is eternal, and it will take his unfinished works on its shoulders and carry all his unfulfilled dreams further to the stars.

In his cosmic philosophy, Tsiolkovsky created a grandiose concept of the cosmos, the universe, of which man is an organic part.

Here are the main ideas of this concept.

...The Universe is a single, infinitely complex organism that has its own “cause” and “will”.

...The Universe is infinite in Space and Time. It includes an endless hierarchy of cosmic structures - from spirit atoms to megagalaxies of varying levels of complexity.

...The Universe is alive (self-organizing) and forever young. Processes take place within it that compensate for tendencies toward dying and destruction.

...In the Universe, space civilizations play a huge, in a certain sense even a decisive role, our humanity is only one of them.

The listed ideas of Tsiolkovsky’s cosmic philosophy are, as it were, rediscovered by modern science, i.e. "re-opening".

Konstantin Eduardovich repeatedly emphasized: “I am a pure materialist, but I recognize the sensitivity of the entire universe. The atom is not only an infinitesimal material particle, but also a spirit with the ability to sense.”

“Everything that is alive and only temporarily exists in lethargy in the form of unorganized matter. According to ancient classical religious philosophies and modern scientific concepts, the atom is practically immortal, it lives throughout the existence of the universe. Tsiolkovsky believed that the atom has potential sensitivity, this property manifests itself in different ways: in a stone it seems to sleep, in plants it begins to gradually open up, in animals it manifests itself to a greater extent, is manifested in a person to the maximum, but this limit is conditional.

The scientist believed that humanity had not yet reached perfection and was at one of the lowest levels of development, if we compare its condition with highly developed space civilizations. Improvement primarily concerns human morality and social relations. So, there is no non-existence, there are only infinite combinations of atoms.

“Time is a subjective sensation and belongs only to the living. For the “dead”, the unorganized, it does not exist. “Short intermediate lives merge into one endless whole. Only the form disappears, but you can feel it in Vasiliev and Petrov.” Tsiolkovsky did not consider man as the pinnacle of cosmic evolution. A similar point of view was shared by Vernadsky and other cosmist scientists. In his opinion, there are more highly developed people who have good health, longevity, a perfect mind, etc., all of which we cannot foresee or imagine.

“Here’s God for you from this point of view,” said Konstantin Eduardovich. Gods of a higher order, according to Tsiolkovsky, are the “presidents” of other Worlds. We must recognize the existence of Gods of various ranks, the higher they are, the more incomprehensible to earthly man. What is the “last, highest Ruler?”

According to Tsiolkovsky, “The Universe constantly shouts to us about the existence of a “cause” that is immeasurably higher than the Cosmos and incommensurable with its creation. Space is just one of the many products of “cause”. “Cause” is omnipotent in relation to the Cosmos, She is the highest Love, infinite Mercy and Reason. In many of his writings, he directly identifies the Cause with God, standing above the world and located outside of space.

Another key idea expressed by Tsiolkovsky is the periodicity of the phenomena of the Cosmos: “Everything continuously periodically moves and transforms. This process of exchange and transformation of elements is always taking place.”

According to Tsiolkovsky, “a piece of matter is subject to a countless number of lives, although separated by enormous periods of time, but subjectively merging into one continuous life. We have always lived and will always live, but every time new form and, of course, without memory of the past. Death is only the transition of one state of matter to another. This is a new grouping of hydrogen atoms. The simple turns into the complex, the complex into the simple. And this is repeated countless times, since time has no end, just as it has no beginning. Our god (the cosmos), like us, his parts, have always been and will be.”

“Humanity, as a single object of evolution, is also changing, and, finally, after billions of years it will turn into a single type of radiant energy, that is, a single idea fills all outer space. What will our life be like in the distant future? It is possible that this is eternal bliss and life is endless, as the ancient sages wrote about. Matter, through the medium of man, not only ascends to the highest level of development, but also begins to know itself.”

“Matter in the form of man has reached the question why and why? And the answer to this question will be given - but not by us, but by our descendants. Scientists and philosophers will build a picture of the world that is close to reality.”

Tsiolkovsky wrote that “the cosmic existence of mankind is divided into several main periods of evolution, lasting billions of years; at a certain stage, the corpuscular substance (atom) will turn into a ray substance, turning into a radiant form high level, humanity becomes immortal in time and infinite in space."

“Let us assume that after many billions of years the ray era of the Cosmos will again turn into a corpuscular one, but at a higher level, in order to start everything all over again, suns, nebulae, constellations, planets will appear, but according to a more perfect law. And again a more perfect person will come to the Cosmos to pass through new eras and, after billions of years, to go out again, turning into a ray state of a higher level.”

And so the change of cosmic eras and the endless perfection of the Cosmic Mind will proceed endlessly.

He asked himself the question: “What meaning would the Universe have if it were not filled with an organic, intelligent, sentient world?” And this meaning, in his opinion, is the inevitability of the emergence of highly developed cosmic Civilizations striving for perfection.

“There are hundreds of billions of suns in the Milky Way. IN known universe millions of milky ways. That means there are millions of billions of suns in it. Each sun has a dozen major planets and thousands of small ones. At least one of the large ones is close to Earth in temperature, volume, gravity, water and air, etc., then it is incredible to deny life on them. All suns with their planets are composed of the same substances, which have one source, one primeval matter. If life originated on Earth, then why not appear under the same conditions on planets similar to Earth? The universe is full of living beings!

What is the basis for the denial of intelligent planetary beings of the Universe? Let us list these reasons.

We are told: if they were, they would visit Earth. My answer: maybe they will visit, but the time has not come yet. The wild Australians and Americans of ancient times waited until the Europeans visited, but many millennia passed before they appeared. So we will wait someday. Other planets may have long been mutually visited by their powerful inhabitants.

They also object to us: if they existed, then with some signs they could give us the concept of their existence.

My answer: our means are very weak to perceive these signs. Our celestial neighbors understand that with a certain degree of development of knowledge, people themselves will prove to themselves the population of other planets. But the time will come when the stage of human development will be sufficient for the heavenly inhabitants to visit us.

We brothers kill each other, start wars, and treat animals cruelly. How should we react to creatures completely alien to us? Will we not consider them as rivals for the possession of the Earth and will we not destroy ourselves in an unequal struggle? Humanity is as far in its development from more advanced planetary beings as the lower animals are from people. Can we have intelligent relationships with dogs and monkeys? Likewise, higher beings are still powerless for (reasonable) relations with us.

On the other hand, there are a number of strange facts that prove the participation of other creatures in our lives. This is already a direct confirmation of the existence of other, more mature organisms.

Twice in my life I myself witnessed the phenomenon of the penetration of some intelligent forces into our brain and interference in human affairs, therefore I cannot deny them. If they were with me, then why couldn’t they be with others? This is real proof of the presence of unknown intelligent forces in Space. Some creatures constructed differently from us, at least from incomparably more rarefied matter.”

Tsiolkovsky described an incident that happened to him at the age of 28; at that time he had a period of difficult mental state. “I was depressed. He carefully studied the books of the New Testament and highly appreciated the Galilean Teacher, but did not have a broad point of view. Everything was obscured by narrow science. The possibility of what the Teacher preached was barely flickering.

In desperation, I resorted to Him, to His strength, wanting support and thinking like this: if I saw a sign in the form of a perfect correct cross or a rough but correct figure of a man, then this would be enough for me to attach the highest importance to Christ in earthly affairs .

Then I forgot these thoughts and desires. Several months passed and I saw a cloudy cross, as if cut out of paper (four-pointed Catholic), then I saw a human figure, rough (no eyes, no fingers), but correct.

I understood this phenomenon this way: the cross is man’s destiny, especially mine.”

Like most brilliant people, Tsiolkovsky carried out his life’s feat in hard labor. In an hour of spiritual need, a sign was sent to him that helped dispel his doubts.

The gap between the external “wretchedness” of his existence, aggravated by deafness and poverty, and the internal significance of his unique genius, whose thoughts flew into space, finding the first effective way man's separation from the Earth was truly gigantic.

Few people recognize his ideas now, when most of Tsiolkovsky’s ideas and insights in other fields of knowledge have been confirmed by practice. This is the common misfortune of all geniuses. Such is the misfortune of modern civilization, unable to accommodate the entire breadth of views of the brilliant visionary, confidently peering into the vastness of the Universe, into the depths of Space and into the infinity of the Future.

Let us recall several historical facts that prove humanity’s rejection of reformers, thinkers, inventors and other benefactors of humanity, by whom progress was driven and thanks to whom man moved away from the state of an animal and approached heaven.

...At first, the inventors of steam engines were rejected and not supported. The Russian worker Polzunov, who built a working steam engine before Watt Mayer, the founder of the mechanical theory of heat, was forgotten. Scientists ridiculed him. Frustrated and distressed, Polzunov attempted suicide and was sent to an insane asylum.

...Columbus aroused cheerful laughter among the progressive people of his time, was in chains, and even the America he discovered was not named after him.

...Galileo was sentenced to be burned, but due to old age and humility he was released from execution and was only deprived of his freedom and died in captivity.

...Jan Hus was burned by the spiritual court, just like Giordano Bruno, who pointed out the existence in the heavens of many worlds besides Earth.

...The Academies of Sciences denied the possibility of airplanes and airships.

...Ancient Greek philosopher Anaxagoras for a natural explanation lunar eclipse under the influence of the Earth, he was sentenced (along with his family) to death by a people's court. Only the eloquence of Pericles forced the death penalty to be replaced by exile.

...Ledin discovered gas lighting, but died before it was used. They proved to him that fire cannot exist without a wick.

...German scientists called Ohm a fool. And so on. These examples are countless.

The history of these ridiculed, slaughtered, beheaded and burned Lights of the world and Benefactors of humanity passes before our eyes in long rows.

Even the attitude of scientists, thinkers and geniuses towards their not yet famous brothers is often erroneous, unfair, ruthless and cruel. But what can we expect from average people who cannot distinguish right hand from the left, who are in holy but (criminal) simplicity?

What to do? How not to trample pearls, not to burn shrines, not to destroy the roots of plants on which the fruits that nourish us grow?

Tsiolkovsky believed that salvation lies in a special national structure, the basis of which is still the people themselves. If geniuses are mistaken in their judgments about their brothers, this is partly because they still remain people with all the moral shortcomings: envy, jealousy, selfishness of all kinds (personal, family, family, etc.).

Geniuses for the most part develop one-sidedly, even to the detriment of their other properties. Their moral shortcomings are often much stronger than those of average people. And there is no greater misconception than to think that the geniuses and thinkers who move science and progress come from certified scientists and specialists in their field.

The great ones emerge for the most part from all of humanity, from all its various strata, without having diplomas with them indicating that they belong to the scientific world.

Thus, the all-encompassing genius Leonardo da Vinci was an artist. Physicist Franklin - rag maker and printer. Kulibin is a self-taught tradesman, like the astronomer Semyonov.

The astronomer Copernicus was a sexton. Charles Darwin was a farmer. Newton - an official, caretaker of the mint. Edison was self-taught, like Faraday. Mendeleev was a teacher. These and people like them gave immeasurably more to science and humanity than all official scientists combined.

Great things were done not by highly paid chartered scientists, but by people, in the conventional sense, small.

So, in order to be a judge of an outstanding person, it is not enough to be an inventor or thinker yourself; they can simply be unfair and biased due to general human weakness, due to (animal envy and jealousy, due to professional limitations).

Simple average people are fair and kind, but they lack knowledge, genius and comprehensive talent.

Only the chosen ones, who combine a pure, impartial heart with an extensive mind, talents, freshness and multifaceted knowledge, can judge people, especially the highest ones.

Tsiolkovsky dreamed of cooperation between scientists: “It’s difficult to work alone, for many years not seeing any clearing anywhere.”

In the science fiction story “Outside the Earth,” Konstantin Eduardovich described how geniuses work (he named them after famous scientists), who settled far from the bustle of people in a beautiful castle located between the greatest spurs of the Himalayas. This is the home of the greatest scientists of the whole world, sages who give humanity their inventions for its own good.

Like all cosmist thinkers, Tsiolkovsky did not consider man to be the final crown of creation, but keenly felt his imperfect, intermediate, still in crisis nature. “Doesn’t a person have an abyss of physical, mental and social deficiencies to remain with what he has!”

And although all his life he fought for a technical means of space exploration, for his rocket, but in the longer term he saw improved conscious beings, already doing without artificial, technical attachments to their organs. He argued that one of the highest goals of humanity should be the infinity of progress and the hope of eliminating death. Tsiolkovsky imagines the future person to be as independent as possible from literally all the conditions of our current existence, from everything - right down to food. He wrote: “Continuous joy awaits you. I want this life of yours to be a bright dream of a future, never-ending happiness... You will die with joy, in the conviction that happiness, perfection, the boundless and subjective continuity of a rich organic life await you. My conclusions are more comforting than the promises of the most cheerful religions.”

All real science about space has sprouted from Tsiolkovsky’s ideas. He called himself a materialist due to the undeniable conviction that everything in the Cosmos is created from one single subtlest Matter, which exists in different frequency ranges - light, color, atom, molecule, of which the entire manifested and unmanifested world, and you and I, consists.

Tsiolkovsky spoke about the gigantic creative activity of the intelligent forces of the Universe. Space is a creative laboratory!

Cosmic ideas, which are the main engine of all the work of Konstantin Eduardovich, speak of the greatest will to life inherent in him. This is the will to the victory of the human mind over the elemental forces of nature, a will based on solid knowledge, all implementation, the conquest of the limitless forces, spaces and times of the Universe.

It lived and seethed in the mind and heart of the Kaluga dreamer - to live and, at any cost, go out into outer space, master and transform it. For Tsiolkovsky, the separation of conscious beings from the material bosom of their planet is an evolutionarily necessary and inevitable moment in the development of civilization! “What meaning would the Universe have if it were not filled with an organic, intelligent, sentient world?”

And today we have every reason to say: “He walked ahead of his century!”

“Hello, sky!
Hello, little stars,
From the bottom of my heart
And thoughts.
Forever you twinkle in the black and blue sky
And beckon my lonely heart.
Where in the deep gorges of infinity
The planets have taken shelter,
Maybe there
The same pitiful and the same lonely wanderer,
Baring his head, he stretches out his arms
To us, to our sunny world,
And he says the same inspired ones,
The same eternal words
Amazement, delight and secret hope.
Oh, we understand each other!
Hello, distant brother in the Universe!

Literature

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Space philosophy

1. We doubt the ubiquity of life. Of course, on the planets of our system it is possible, if not the absence of life, then its primitiveness, weakness, perhaps ugliness and, in any case, backwardness from the earthly one, as being located in a particularly favorable conditions temperatures and substances. But the Milky Ways, or spiral nebulae, have billions of suns. Their group contains millions of billions of luminaries. Each of them has many planets, and at least one of them has a planet in favorable conditions. This means that at least a million billion planets have life and intelligence no less perfect than our planet. We limited ourselves to the group of spiral nebulae, that is, the universe accessible to us. But it is limitless. How can one deny life in this boundlessness?

What meaning would the universe have if it were not filled with an organic, intelligent, sentient world? Why would there be endless blazing suns? What is their energy for? Why is it wasted? Do the stars really shine to decorate the sky, to delight people, as they thought in the Middle Ages, the times of the Inquisition and religious madness?

2. We are also inclined to think that the highest development of life belongs to the Earth. But its animals and humans arose relatively recently and are now in a period of development. The sun will still exist as a source of life for billions of years, and humanity will have to move forward and progress during this unimaginable period - in terms of body, mind, morality, knowledge and technological power. Something brilliant and unimaginable awaits him ahead. After a thousand million years, nothing is imperfect, like modern plants, animals and humans, will no longer be on Earth. There will only be one good thing left, to which reason and its power will inevitably lead us.

But are all the planets in space as young as the Earth? Are they all in a period of development, in a period of imperfection? As we know from astronomy, the age of suns is very diverse: from newly born rarefied giant stars to extinct black dwarfs. Old people have many billions of years, young suns have not even given birth to their planets.

What is the conclusion? It turns out that there must be planets of all ages: from flaming, like suns, to dead, thanks to the extinction of their suns. Some planets, therefore, have not yet cooled down, others have primitive life, others have grown to the point of developing lower animals on them, others already have a mind similar to that of a human, others have still stepped forward, etc. From this it is clear that we must renounce the opinion as if the most perfect life belongs to our planet.

Nevertheless, we come to a conclusion that is not entirely comforting: in the Universe, imperfect, unreasonable and painful life is distributed to the same extent as the highest, intelligent, powerful and beautiful.

3. But is this conclusion correct? No, he's wrong, and we're about to find out. We found that the ages of the planets are very diverse. It follows from this that there are planets that have reached the highest level in the development of intelligence and power and are ahead of all the planets. They, having gone through all the torments of evolution, knowing their sad past, their past imperfections, wanted to save other planets from the torments of development.

If we, earthly inhabitants, are already dreaming of interplanetary travel, then what have the planets that are billions of years older than us achieved in this regard! For them, this journey is as simple and easy as for us traveling by rail from one city to another.

On these advanced mature planets, reproduction occurs millions of times faster than on Earth. However, it is regulated at will: a perfect population is needed - it is born quickly and in any number.

Visiting the immature worlds around them with primitive animal life, they destroy it as painlessly as possible and replace it with their perfect breed. Is this good, isn't it cruel? If it were not for their intervention, the painful self-destruction of animals would have continued for millions of years, as it continues on Earth today. Their intervention in a few years, even days, destroys all suffering and puts in its place an intelligent, powerful and happy life. It is clear that the latter is millions of times better than the former.

What follows from this? And the fact that there is no imperfect and suffering life in space: it is eliminated by the intelligence and power of the advanced planets. If it exists, it is on only a few planets. In the overall harmony of the Universe, it is unnoticeable, just as a speck of dust is unnoticeable on a snow-white field.

But how can we understand the presence of suffering on Earth? Why don’t the higher planets eliminate our unhappy life, stop it and replace it with their beautiful one? There are other planets like Earth. Why do they suffer? In a perfect world, in addition to the prevailing progress, there is also regression, a backward movement. In addition, the flowers of life are so beautiful, so diverse, that the best of them need to be grown, waiting for the seeds and fruits. Although the advanced planets were ahead of the others, this may be due to their old age. There may be later planets with better fruits. It is necessary to correct the regression of the Universe with these belated fruits. That is why a small number of planets that promise to give extraordinary results are left without intervention. Between them is the Earth. She suffers, but not without reason. Its fruits must be high if it is left to independent development and inevitable torment. I will say again that the sum of these sufferings is invisible in the ocean of happiness of the entire cosmos.

4. Others think: we have years of life and decillions of years of non-existence! Isn’t this, in essence, non-being, since being in the mass of non-being is imperceptible and the same as a drop in an ocean of water?

But the fact is that non-existence is not marked by time and sensation. Therefore, it is as if it does not exist, but only life exists. A piece of matter is subject to an innumerable series of lives, although separated by enormous periods of time, but merging subjectively into one continuous and, as we have proven, beautiful life.

What happens? And what is common biological life The universe is not only high, but also seems continuous. Every piece of matter continuously lives this life, since the intervals of long non-existence pass unnoticed for it: the dead do not have time and receive it only when they come to life, that is, they take on the highest organic form of a conscious animal.

Perhaps they will say: is organic life accessible to the centers of suns, planets, gas nebulae and comets? Isn’t their matter doomed to eternal death, that is, non-existence?.. And the Earth, and us, and all people, and all organic modern life Earths were once the substance of the Sun. However, this did not stop us from getting out of there and getting life. Matter is continuously mixed: some of its parts go into the suns, while others come out of them. Every drop of matter, no matter where it is, will inevitably have its turn to live. She will have to wait a long time. But this expectation and enormous time exist only for the living and is their illusion. Our drop will not experience painful waiting and will not notice for millions of years.

They say again: I will die, my substance will be scattered throughout to the globe, how can I come to life?

Before your birth, your substance was also scattered, but this did not prevent you from being born. After each death, the same thing happens - dissipation. But, as we see, it does not prevent revival. Of course, each revival has its own form, not similar to the previous ones. We have always lived and will always live, but each time in a new form and, of course, without memory of the past.

5. The coming thousands and millions of years will improve human nature and its social organization. Humanity will turn into one powerful being under the control of its president. This is the best of all people physically and mentally. But if the members of society are high in their qualities, then how high is the highest, scientifically chosen one of them!

This is how the populations of other planets are inevitably organized. To a powerful population highest planet Each solar system will have access to not only the planets of this system, but also the entire circumsolar space. It is exploited for the benefit of the population, like all solar energy. It is clear that one planet is a crumb in the solar system. It does not constitute the center. The population is scattered throughout the solar space. Not only each planet is subject to unification, but also their entire aggregate and the entire etheric population living outside the planets in artificial dwellings. So, after the unification of each planet, the unification of each solar system will inevitably come.

Their power is so great that they communicate with each other not only by special telegrams, but also personally, directly, as acquaintances. Thousands of years are required for this journey, but other inhabitants of solar systems also live for thousands of years, for billions of years of future development of any planet will give the population of each an indefinitely long life. Catastrophes of the suns, their explosions, increases and decreases in temperature force the population to foresee everything and know everything about neighboring suns in order to move away from the threatening danger in advance.

A union of nearby suns, a union of unions, etc. is formed. It is difficult to say where the limit of these unions is, since the Universe is infinite.

We see countless presidents varying degrees perfection. And since there is no end to these categories, there are no limits to personal - individual perfection...

6. So far we have talked only about things and creatures made of ordinary matter. It contains 92 or more elements, and the latter are composed of a combination of hydrogen atoms.

So, we talked about hydrogen beings, about the hydrogen world.

But is there some other substance? We have such a substance - an incomprehensible luminiferous ether that fills all the space between the suns and makes matter and the Universe continuous.

There is reason to believe that suns and all bodies in general lose matter the more strongly the hotter they are. Where does this matter go? We think that it decomposes into a simpler and more elastic one, which spreads in space. Perhaps this is ether or another non-hydrogen substance.

But where did the suns, gaseous nebulae and the entire hydrogen world come from? If matter decomposes, then there must be a reverse process - its synthesis, that is, the formation again from its fragments of the 92 varieties of hydrogen matter known to us.

We observe reversibility in all mechanical, physical and biological phenomena. Do we need to talk about this? Who doesn’t know the phenomena of reversibility of a circular process, when what was destroyed appears again? I mean this phenomenon in a broad sense, in an approximate sense, and not in an exact mathematical sense, because nothing is exactly repeated. In these phenomena, however, the law of conservation of energy is observed. But here the hidden potential intra-atomic energy of the substance intervenes, and the phenomenon sometimes becomes confused. So, radioactivity initially confused scientists. Let us present the simplest signs of reversibility. High speed of bodies turns into low speed and back. Steam is produced from liquid and vice versa. Happening chemical compound and back. All 92 elements decompose into hydrogen, and from the latter 92 elements are obtained. Organic matter turns into inorganic (destruction, death), and inorganic into organic.

So, probably, the decomposition of suns in one place is accompanied by their formation in another.

Since reversibility is so common, why not allow it in the destruction of hydrogen matter?

It turns into energy, but one must think that energy is a special type of simplest matter, which sooner or later will again give rise to the hydrogen matter known to us.

What is the hydrogen atom itself - the beginning of the entire known material world?

It was created by the past time, and it is infinitely large. Consequently, the atom is infinitely complex. Hydrogen had simpler parents, even simpler grandparents, etc.

Isn't the origin of man similar to this? Were not his ancestors more and more simple as they moved away from our time? The ancestor of man is hydrogen, and closer ancestors are 92 elements. But man is distant from these ancestors by only a few hundred million or billions of years. This is so small compared to infinity! What were the ancestors of hydrogen a few decillions of years ago?

In a word, if we divide infinite time into a series of infinities, then each of these infinities will have its own matter, its own suns, its own planets and its own creatures.

“Each era is grossly material in relation to all previous ones, and the same era is ephemeral in relation to subsequent ones. All of them are material, but conditionally, due to the extreme difference in the densities of these worlds, some can be called spiritual, others - material. In relation to our hydrogen world, all previous eras are spiritual. And ours, when the infinity of time has passed and the era of denser matter comes, will become spiritual. It’s the same, but it’s relative.”

Is there anything left from previous eras: simpler matter, light ethereal beings, etc.? We see the light ether. Isn't this one of the fragments of primeval matter? We sometimes see extraordinary phenomena. Are they not the result of the activities of surviving intelligent beings from other eras?

Is it possible that traces of them remain? Let's give an example. Our earthly creatures began to emerge from the time the earth's crust cooled. But some of them grew to higher animals, while others remained the same ciliates and bacteria that they were. The same time has passed, but what a difference in achievements! So, perhaps, part of the substance of each era left a certain amount of both the matter characteristic of it and the living beings characteristic of it?

It turns out that there are countless other cosmos, other beings, which we can conventionally call immaterial, or spirits.

Are they perfect or do they represent ugly phenomena like our unfortunate earthly animals?

We have already proven that the mature mind of our era, allocated by the cosmos, eliminates everything imperfect. So our hydrogen era contains the beautiful, the strong, the powerful, the intelligent and the happy. I'm talking about general condition era. Also, the minds of other eras singled out one good thing. Therefore, we are surrounded by perfect spirits.

Another question: do they have influence on us and on each other? In essence, the spirits of different infinities are all material. But matter cannot help but influence matter. Therefore, the influence of spirits on us and on each other is very possible. A rough example: the wind moves the water, the oceans change the land.

Can we turn into these spirits and live their lives? Matter becomes more complex and then decomposes. Both happen simultaneously and always. The more time passes, the greater the chance of obtaining a different matter: simpler or more complex. In the first case, spirits can arise from our substance, in the second - denser substances than hydrogen. Of course, the most possible and closest is the emergence of 92 elements. The second is the emergence of the nearest infinity in the elements.

It takes even more time for the second order, more distant infinity to arise in the elements, etc.

7. Let us summarize the above:

A. Organic life is widespread throughout the Universe.

B. The most powerful development of life does not belong to the Earth.

8. The intelligence and power of the advanced planets of the Universe make it drown in perfection. In short, her organic life, with unnoticeable exceptions, is mature, and therefore powerful and beautiful.

D. This life for every creature seems continuous, since non-existence is not felt.

D. Distributed throughout space public organizations, which are governed by presidents of varying degrees. One is higher than the other, and thus there is no limit to personal or individual development. If every mature member of the cosmos is incomprehensible to us, then how incomprehensible is the president of the first, second, tenth, hundredth rank?

E. The infinity of elapsed time forces one to assume the existence of a number of unique worlds, separated by infinities of a lower order. These worlds, becoming more complex, left part of their substance and part of their animals in a primitive form.

They are perfect in their kind and can be called conditionally, due to their low density, spirits. We are surrounded by hosts of spirits from different eras and can also turn into them, although it is infinitely more likely to appear in the form of dense modern matter. And yet we are not guaranteed against becoming a conventional spirit, but sooner or later this is inevitable.

8. From here we can see the endless complexity of cosmic phenomena, which, of course, we cannot adequately comprehend, since it is even higher than we think. As the mind expands, knowledge increases and the Universe opens up to it more and more.

Doubts and hesitations

There are phenomena that can only be explained by the intervention of other beings. For example, a reasonable and moderate appeal to higher powers is performed by someone, especially when the person asking has received their favor and really needs support. From our point of view, this, if not entirely clear and not actually proven, is possible.

But how can we understand help from deceased relatives and high-ranking people who have left our lives, when you turn to them, exhausted by misfortunes and injustice? According to our theory, they live a blissful life, but they lose all their past, including you. Therefore, there is no point in addressing them here.

How can they help us?

It is possible that they, taking on a different image, remain observers of our life. But who can show them their relationship if they themselves, like everyone else, have lost their past?

And the kinship itself beyond the grave no longer makes sense.

One person, very good life, said that he always received help in his suffering from deceased relatives. But when he wanted to verify this unnecessarily by carrying out experiments, he immediately lost support, that is, he did not receive a response.

Are our comforting conclusions (monism) completely correct? Isn't there something left of a person after death, some part of his earthly nervous life? But then we must assume the same for all animals, although to the most diverse and lowest degree. Modern science cannot recognize the possibility of such remnants, that is, remnants of memory from any existence. Finally, if it were possible, then in real life we would have memories of countless past existences. This is unthinkable simply because no memory can accommodate the infinity of past sensations.

It is possible that help is given not by relatives (which makes no scientific sense), but by other beings, seeing our suffering. This is completely acceptable. We only think about our relatives, but it’s not about them.

I worked a lot on the purposefulness of nature and came to a positive conclusion. This is a long topic and deserves special research. Someday I will share my work.

But if the universe is expedient, then why not allow things, although completely incomprehensible to us, to be useful for humanity?

Thus, on Earth, bad deeds find retribution that comes naturally from themselves. But there are also crimes that go unpunished until death. Everyone knows this and therefore does not abstain from evil. Expediency and the common good require that a person fear the slightest deviation from the truth. It would be good if he were confident in retribution after death, in unwavering retribution, no matter what. This would deter many from crime. This is good, useful, expedient. But if it is so, then why shouldn’t it be! We just don't understand how this happens.

From a scientific point of view, retribution seems impossible to us, but from an ethical point of view, it’s a different matter.

Rewards for exploits would also be useful - at any cost: if not in this life, then in the next. From our scientific point of view, there are no punishments, but there are rewards (monism). The only unpleasant thing is that these rewards are received without distinction by both the criminal and the selfless, useful worker.

How can we admit, for example, that the perpetrators of imperialist wars receive the same reward as Galileo, Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Huss, etc. How many victims and executioners... and the result is the same for everyone: happiness and perfect life after death. The idea of ​​individual rewards is useful but unscientific. From the point of view of expediency, it is acceptable.

Different religions spread the idea of ​​rewards and punishments. Many believed in them, and therefore this idea, although erroneous, was useful at one time.

And now the masses believe them. However, science cannot confirm them. It is possible that they, having played their expedient role, will be dissipated by knowledge and replaced by some other beliefs that also act in favor of a good life. For example, gratitude to nature, which promises supreme bliss. Gratitude and delight in the future posthumous life can serve as well as abstinence from evil as the fear of punishment.

Many beg to higher powers for forgiveness and a better posthumous fate for their loved ones: parents, spouses, children, friends. They don’t really believe, but their love for relatives makes them worry about higher powers. Many rationalists cannot renounce such prayers. Science considers this meaningless, since all the dead, without distinction, must immerse themselves in the perfection of the universe (and there is nothing to ask for).

We doubt science too. Some innate instinct forces us, albeit vaguely, not firmly, with hesitation, to believe in the reasonableness of our prayers. Of course, science is constantly developing, it does not stand in one place, I didn’t say last word. Just in case, people do seemingly inappropriate things, not believing in science: in its infallibility and finality. In any case, if we make mistakes, then there is no great harm from such mistakes.

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1. The concept of space in ancient philosophy and Russian philosophy of the 19th – early 20th centuries.

Cosmos is a term from ancient Greek philosophy to designate the world as a structurally organized and ordered whole.

The cosmos as a “world structure” was first attested around 500 BC. in fragments of Heraclitus, then firmly enters the natural philosophical lexicon of the Pre-Socratics (Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Democritus).

The ancient Greek perception of the cosmos (especially in Plato and Aristotle) ​​as the ultimate fullness of being, as an aesthetically beautiful, perfect and innocent being constitutes the historical antithesis of the Judeo-Christian concept of the “defectiveness” of nature as a result of the Fall.

In Aristotle's treatise “On Heaven,” the term “sky” competes with the term cosmos, which finally gives way to space, starting from the Hellenistic era. In Plato's dialogue "Timaeus" the initial concept is the "demiurge" - the organizer of the cosmos, creating it according to a certain model. According to Plato, the cosmos arises from a mixture of ideas and matter; the demiurge creates the world soul and distributes this mixture throughout the entire space, which is intended for the visible universe, dividing it into elements - fire, water, air and earth. Rotating the cosmos, he rounded it, giving it the most perfect shape - spheres. According to harmonic mathematical relationships, he transformed the orbits of the planets and the sky of the fixed stars. The result is space like living creature gifted with intelligence. The cosmos is one, because the only prototype that God imitates when creating the world must correspond to the only, most beautiful world, which consists of the demiurge (divine mind), the world soul and the world body.

Thus, the ancient cosmic structure of the world, raised by Plato to philosophical consciousness and containing almost all the principles of modern European rationality, was based on ancient Greek mythology.

A different situation arose at the beginning of the industrial revolution of modern times. She demanded different foundations, a new pantheon and a new “mythology”.

Russian cosmism at the turn of the century was one of the fundamental attempts of the human mind to know itself and comprehend its true place and calling, to recover from the disease of scientism and turn its face to human values. He embodied many of the generic features of Russian thought, which grew on the basis of “Greek-Orthodox ideas, in turn largely borrowed from antiquity, but it was based on the conclusions of theoretical reason: laws and formulas, logical constructions and numbers, idealizations of mechanics and mathematics. In essence, a new “mechanical myth” was being created for European man, who entered into instrumental relations with nature on a fundamentally different level.

Unlike the sensory-material, self-sufficient and complete in all parts of the cosmos of Plato and Aristotle, the new cosmos had a number of fundamental features.

Despite the “partial return to the Greek attitude towards the body” and the “overcoming of abstract spiritualism, which opposed the spirit to the body and saw in the body a principle hostile to the spirit, Russian cosmism remained faithful to Orthodox personalism and even strengthened this line (N. Berdyaev, L. Karsavin).

Russian cosmism, in contrast to the ancient cosmos, which was one of the best worlds, harmonious and beautiful, saw the world in development and formation, its cosmos is evolutionary and historical - this is the 8th day of creation, carried out by man in collaboration with the Creator.

Russian cosmism does not abolish the apocalypse, but it develops its idea of ​​the coming of the Kingdom of God not through death, but through the transformation of the created world; it cultivates the field of understanding between religion, science and art, between physics and metaphysics, knowledge about nature and man.

2. T. Kuhn on scientific criteria

Initially, T. Kuhn dwells on the question of the characteristics of a good scientific theory. From a set of completely ordinary answers, he selects five.

1. Accuracy - the theory must be accurate: the consequences deduced from the theory must show agreement with the results of existing experiments and observations.

2. Consistency - a theory must be consistent, not only internally or with itself, but also with other accepted theories applicable to related areas of nature.

3. Area of ​​application - a theory must have a wide area of ​​application, the consequences of theories must extend far beyond the boundaries of those particular observations, laws and subtheories to which its explanation was originally focused.

4. Simplicity (this is closely related to the previous one) - the theory must be simple, bring order to phenomena that, in its absence, would be isolated from each other and constitute a confused totality.

5. Fruitfulness is a less standard, but very important characteristic for real scientific decisions - a theory must be fruitful, opening up new horizons of research; it should reveal new phenomena and relationships that previously went unnoticed among those already known.

All five of these characteristics are standard criteria for assessing the adequacy of a theory. However, two kinds of difficulties regularly arise for those who use these criteria: each individual criterion is vague: researchers, applying them to specific cases, may rightfully differ in their assessment; used together, they come into conflict with each other from time to time.

The first criterion that Kuhn considers is accuracy, by which he means not only quantitative agreement, but also qualitative agreement. Ultimately, of all the characteristics, it turns out to be the closest to the decisive one, partly because it determines the explanatory and predictive powers that constitute criteria that scientists are not inclined to compromise. He notes that theories cannot always be distinguished in terms of accuracy, citing as examples the Copernican system, which was no more accurate than the Ptolemaic system until it was radically revised more than 60 years after Copernicus's death by Kepler.

One theory is better suited to experience in one area, another in another. To make a choice between them on the basis of accuracy, the scientist must decide in which area accuracy is more important. However important the criterion of accuracy may be, it is rarely (or never) a sufficient criterion for choosing a theory.

Other criteria also function, but they do not close the question. To illustrate this point, Kuhn dwells on two - consistency and simplicity, raising the question of how they functioned during the choice between the heliocentric and geocentric systems. As astronomical theories, Ptolemy and Copernicus were internally consistent, but their relationship to related theories in other fields of knowledge was different. The stationary Earth, placed at the center, was an essential component of the generally accepted theory of physics, a compact collection of doctrines that explained, among other things, how a water pump works, how stones fall, why clouds move slowly across the heavens. Heliocentric astronomy, which assumed the movement of the Earth, was incompatible with the then existing scientific explanation these and other earthly phenomena. Consequently, the criterion of consistency was in favor of the geocentric tradition.

Simplicity, however, was then patronized by Copernicus, although when it was assessed in a completely special way. If, on the one hand, the two systems are compared in terms of the actual computational effort that must be put in to predict the position of the planet at some point in time, then they turn out to be essentially equivalent. Such calculations were precisely done by astronomers, and the Copernican system did not have any methods to reduce their labor intensity. In this sense, it was not simpler than the Ptolemaic one. However, if, on the other hand, the question arose about the complexity of the mathematical apparatus required not to give a quantitative explanation of the details of the movement of the planets, but only to qualitatively explain the important properties of this movement - limited elongations, retrograde movements, and the like, then Copernicus proposed only one circle per planet, and Ptolemy two. In this sense, Copernicus' theory was simpler, a fact that was vital to Kepler and Galileo and thus to the grand triumph of Copernicanism. But this sense of simplicity was not the only one and, moreover, it was not the most natural for professional astronomers, those who, in fact, are busy calculating the positions of the planets.

Difficulties in applying standard selection criteria are typical and arise in situations of 20th century science. no less clearly than before.

Other factors influencing choice lie beyond the scope of science. For example, Kepler's preference for Copernicanism stemmed in part from his involvement in the Neoplatonic and hermeneutic movements of his time; German Romanticism prepared those scientists who came under its influence to recognize and accept the law of conservation of energy; social thought of England in the 19th century. similarly made Darwin's concept of the struggle for existence accessible and acceptable.

In addition, factors include individual characteristics scientists. Some scientists are more inclined than others to be original and therefore more willing to take risks, while some prefer broader unifying theories to precise and detailed solutions to problems in a relatively narrow field.

List of used literature

1. Bakina V.I. The relationship between macrocosm and microcosm in early ancient Greek philosophy // Bulletin of Moscow University, series 7: philosophy, No. 5, 2000