Nikolai Fyodorov by Leonid Pasternak

Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov (Russian: Никола́й Фёдорович Фёдоров; surname also Anglicized as "Fedorov") (June 9, 1829–December 28, 1903) was a Russian Orthodox Christian philosopher, who was part of the Russian cosmism movement and philosophy of Transhumanism. Fyodorov advocated radical life extension using scientific methods, human immortality and resurrection of dead people. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Self portrait with the wife Leonid Osipovich Pasternak (Russian: , April 4, 1862 N.S. - May 31, 1945) was a Russian Impressionist painter. ... June 9 is the 160th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (161st in leap years), with 205 days remaining. ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1829 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... December 28 is the 362nd day of the year (363rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 3 days remaining. ... 1900 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Friday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... The Eastern Orthodox Church is a Christian body that views itself as: the historical continuation of the original Christian community established by Jesus Christ and the Twelve Apostles, having maintained unbroken the link between its clergy and the Apostles by means of Apostolic Succession. ... This article or section needs a complete rewrite for the reasons listed on the talk page. ... Natasha Vita-Mores Primo is an artistic depiction of a hypothetical posthuman of transhumanist speculation. ... Life extension refers to an increase in maximum or average lifespan, especially in humans, by slowing down or reversing the processes of aging. ... Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from an article revision dated 2006-7-27, and may not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ...

Biography

Fyodorov's parents were the Rurikid knyaz Pavel Ivanovich Gagarin and Elisaveta Ivanova, a woman of lower-class nobility. He studied at the Richelieu Lyceum in Odessa. From 1854 to 1868, he served as a teacher in various small Russian towns. In 1878, he joined the Rumyantsev Museum staff as a librarian. Fyodorov opposed the idea of property on books and ideas and never published a line during his lifetime. His selected articles were printed posthumously under the title Philosophy of the Common Task (also known as Philosophy of Physical Resurrection). Rurik Dynasty ... Kniaz’ or knyaz is a word found in some Slavic languages, denoting a nobility rank. ... For other uses, see Odessa (disambiguation). ... 1854 (MDCCCLIV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1868 (MDCCCLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... 1878 (MDCCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... The Russian State Library is the national library of Russia, located in Moscow. ...

Philosophy

Fyodorov was a futurist, who theorized about the eventual perfection of the human race and society (i.e., utopia), including radical ideas like immortality, revival of the dead, space and ocean colonization. His writings heavily influenced mystic Peter Uspensky and early rocket pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Futures studies reflects on how today’s changes (or the lack thereof) become tomorrow’s reality. ... Left panel (The Earthly Paradise, Garden of Eden), from Hieronymus Boschs The Garden of Earthly Delights. ... Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from an article revision dated 2006-7-27, and may not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... Look up Resurrection in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Artists conception of a space habitat called the Stanford torus, by Don Davis Space colonization (also called space settlement, space humanization, space habitation, etc. ... Ocean colonization is the theoretical practice of building structures to allow humans to live permanently in areas of Earth covered in water; whether floating on the surface of the ocean, secured to the ocean floor, or somewhere in between. ... Peter D. Ouspensky (March 5, 1878 - October 2, 1947), (Pyotr Demianovich Ouspenskii, also Uspenskii or Uspensky) was born in Moscow and died in England. ... Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (Константин Эдуардович Циолковский, Konstanty Ciołkowski) (September 5, 1857 new style – September 19, 1935) was a Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of cosmonautics who spent most of his life in a log house on the outskirts of the Russian town of Kaluga. ...

Mankind’s Common Cause

Fedorov argued that the evolutionary process was directed towards increased intelligence and its role in the development of life. The Man is the pinnacle of evolution, as well as its creator and director. He must direct it where his reason and morality dictate. Fedorov noted that mortality is the most striking indicator of yet imperfect, contradictory nature of Man and the deep reason for most evil and nihilism in man and mankind. Fedorov argued that the struggle against death can become the deepest and the most natural cause uniting all people of Earth, regardless of their nationality, race, citizenship or wealth (he called this the Common Cause).

Fedorov thought that death and afterdeath existence should become the subject of comprehensive scientific enquiry. Achieving immortality and revival is the highest goal of science. And this knowledge must leave the laboratories and become the common property of all: "Everyone must be learning and everything be the subject of knowledge and action".

Two reasons for death

The human life, emphasized Fedorov, dies out for two reasons. First is internal: the material organization of human, his functionality is incapable of infinite self-renewal. To overcome this psychophysiological regulation of the human organism is needed. Second reason is the spontaneous nature of the external environment, its destructive character that must be overcome with regulation of nature. Regulation of nature, “introducing will and reason into nature” includes, according to Fedorov, prevention of natural disasters, control of the Earth climate, fight against viruses and epidemics, mastery of the solar power, space exploration and unlimited creative work there.

Immortality for all

Achieving immortality and revival of all people who ever lived are two inseparable goals, according to Fedorov. Immortality is impossible, both ethically and physically, without revival. We can’t concede that our ancestors, who gave us life and culture, left to die, that our relatives and friends die. Achieving immortality for living individuals and future generations is only a partial victory over death, only the first stage. The full victory will be achieved only when everyone is returned to a transformed immortal life.

Restoring life and making it infinite

Fedorov tried to outline specific directors for scientific research for possibility of restoring life and making it infinite. His first project is connected with collecting and synthesizing decayed remains of dead based on "knowledge and control over all atoms and molecules of the world". This idea of Fedorov is related to the modern practice of cloning. The second approach described by Fedorov is genetic-hereditary. The revival could be done successively in the ancestral line: sons and daughters restore their fathers and mothers, they in turn restore their parents and so on. This means restoring the ancestors using the hereditary information that they passed on to their children. Using this genetic approach it is only possible to create a genetic twin of the dead person (the problem of identity in cloning). It is necessary to give back the revived person his old mind, his personality. Fedorov speculates about the idea of “radial images” that may contain the personalities of the people and survive after death. Nevertheless, Fedorov noted that even if the soul is destroyed after the death, the man will learn to restore it whole by mastering the forces of decay and fragmentation. Cloning is the process of creating an identical copy of something. ...

Transformation of past physical forms

The revival of people who lived in the past is not a recreation of their past physical form — it was imperfect, parasitic, centered on mortal existence. The idea is to transform it into self-creating, mind-controlled form, capable of infinite renewal, which is immortal. Those who haven’t died will go through the same transformation. The man will have to become a creator and organizer of his organism (“our body will be our business”). In the past the development of civilization happened by increasing human power using external tools and machines — the human body remained imperfect.

Transhumanism

Fedorov points out that we need to breach the gap between the power of technology and weakness of the human physical form. The transition is overdue from purely technical development, a “prosthetic” civilization, to organic progress, when not just external tools, artificial implements, but the organisms themselves are improved, so that, for example, a man can fly, see far and deep, travel through space, live in any environment. Man must become capable of “organodevelopment” that so far only nature was capable of. Fedorov talks about supremacy of mind, “giving, developing organs for itself” and anticipates V. Vernadsky’s idea of autotrophic man. He argues that a man must become an autotrophic, self-feeding creature, acquire a new mode of energy exchange with the environment that will not end. Natasha Vita-Mores Primo is an artistic depiction of a hypothetical posthuman of transhumanist speculation. ... A United States Army soldier plays foosball with two prosthetic arms Jon Comer, professional skateboarder with a prosthetic leg. ... Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (Владимир Иванович Вернадский) (March 12, 1863, N.S. [ February 28, O.S. ] – January 6, 1945) was a Russian mineralogist and geochemist who first... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Fedorov repeatedly said that only broad scientific studies of aging, death, after death condition, only the science that strives to achieve a transformed immortal life, can really uncover the means to overcome death.

Fedorov's quotes

Fedorov's criticism of philosophers: How unnatural it is to ask, ‘Why does that which exist, exist?' and yet how completely natural it is to ask, ‘Why do the living die?‘

See also

• Russian philosophy
• Russian cosmism
• Transhumanism
• Immortalism
• Cryonics

Russian philosophy is a broad field, little known to most non-Russians, dominated by religious and humanistic figures such as Vladimir Soloviev and social or political philosophers such as Mikhail Bakunin. ... This article or section needs a complete rewrite for the reasons listed on the talk page. ... Natasha Vita-Mores Primo is an artistic depiction of a hypothetical posthuman of transhumanist speculation. ... Immortality is the concept of existing for a potentially infinite or indeterminate length of time. ... A Dewar human cryopreservation unit utilized by Alcor Life Extension Foundation Cryonics (often mistakenly called cryogenics) is the practice of cryopreserving humans or animals that can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine until resuscitation may be possible in the future. ...

Bibliography

• Ludmila Koehler, N.F. Fedorov: the Philosophy of Action Institute for the Human Sciences, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 1979. AlibrisID: 8714504160
• Taras Zakydalsky Ph.D. thesis, N. F. Fyodorov's Philosophy of Physical Resurrection Bryn Mawr, 1976, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
• G. M. Young, Nikolai F. Fedorov: An Introduction Nordland Publishing Co., Belmont, MA, USA, 1979.
• Ed Tandy, N.F. Fedorov, Russian Come-Upist, Venturist Voice, Summer 1986.
• Nikolai Berdyaev, The Religion of Resusciative Resurrection. "The Philosophy of the Common Task of N. F. Fedorov.
• History of Russian Philosophy «История российской Философии »(1951) by N. O. Lossky Publisher: Allen & Unwin, London ASIN: B000H45QTY International Universities Press Inc NY, NY ISBN-13: 978-0823680740 sponsored by Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary

Alibris is an on-line store that sells used books, out-of-print books, rare books, and other media articles through an on-line network of thousands of independent bookstores. ... Nikolai Berdyaev Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (Николай Александрович Бердяев) (March 18 [O.S. March 6] 1874 – March 24, 1948) was a Russian-Ukrainian religious and political philosopher. ... Nikolai Onufriyevich Lossky (Russian: Николай Онуфриевич Лосский) (December 6 [O.S. November 24] 1870 – January 24, 1965) was a Russian philosopher, representative of Russian idealism, intuitionism, personalism, ethics and his intuitivism. ...

External links

• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Nikolai Fedorovich Fedorov
• Nikolai Fyodorov artistic portrait
• Biography of Nikolai Fyodorov and bibliography of works by and about him