cosmist

Cosmism, or cosmist philosophy, is a broad intellectual current that emerged in Russia during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It centers on humanity’s cosmic destiny, the unity of science and ethics, and the aspiration to extend and preserve life beyond Earth. Adherents are often referred to as cosmists or cosmist thinkers.

The movement drew on the writings of Nikolai Fedorov, who proposed universal resurrection and the immortality of all people through advanced science and cooperative action. Influential later figures include the spaceflight theorist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and the biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky, who expanded cosmism into ideas about space exploration, the noosphere, and planetary-scale transformation.

Core ideas of cosmism include the belief that humanity should undertake a cosmic mission by colonizing space, preserving life, and achieving some form of immortality or resurrection through technology. Cosmists emphasized scientific progress as a moral duty and often advocated a cooperative, inclusive approach to knowledge, seeing humanity’s future as inextricably linked to the expansion of life into the solar system and beyond.

Influence and interpretation of cosmism are varied. While never forming a centralized doctrine or church, cosmism shaped Russian scientific and philosophical thought and helped seed early ideas about space exploration. In contemporary discourse, a cosmist is typically described as someone who embraces cosmism’s themes of space habitation, long‑term survival, and evolutionary development, rather than a formal, unified movement.