Whiteheadian process thought and the philosophy of Russian cosmism

Abstract

This article attempts to interpret the philosophy of Russian natural-scientific cosmism in terms of process thought. As the most developed version of this strategy of thinking, Whitehead’s process philosophy is considered. In the course of a comparative analysis of Whitehead’s philosophy with the ideas of the Russian cosmists A. L. Chizhevsky, K. E. Tsiolkovsky and V. I. Vernadsky the ideological, conceptual and terminological proximity of cosmists to process philosophy, and hence process thought strategy is revealed. A number of key concepts of process philosophy that are discussed in the article: novelty, event, organism, emotional experience, prehension, concrescence. The comparative analysis of Whitehead’s philosophy and the ideas of Russian cosmists based on the works of A. L. Chizhevsky, K. E. Tsiolkovsky and V. I. Vernadsky reveals the philosophical, conceptual and terminological similarity of the cosmists and process thought and, therefore, the process strategy of thinking. Referring to the poetic and scientific heritage of A. L. Chizhevsky, the authors find an outstanding example of a holistic worldview and an organicist attitude toward being. The central ideas of K. E. Tsiolkovsky are those of panpsychism, unification and community. Finally, it becomes known that V. I. Vernadsky pays close attention to the philosophical foundations of a naturalist scientist’s work in his studies. It is noted that Whitehead’s philosophy of process seems to him the most appropriate in this respect. Thus, organicism position; eco-oriented worldview; embedding man in the logic of nature; the priority of societies, nexus and relationships over individuals; ontology of holistic (cosmic) vision of reality; panpsychism; aestheticization of the cosmological process — these and other facets of process thought in the works of the cosmists make it possible to classify Russian natural-scientific cosmism as a processual mode of thought.