ebooks Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American History by Ted Steinberg in History

Description

The nineteenth and early twentieth century saw the emergence of a controversial school of Russian thinkers; led by the philosopher Nikolai Fedorov and united in the conviction that humanity was entering a new stage of evolution in which it must assume a new; active; managerial role in the cosmos. In the first account in English of this fascinating tradition; George M. Young offers a dynamic and wide-ranging examination of the lives and ideas of the Russian Cosmists.Suppressed during the Soviet period and little noticed in the West; the ideas of the Cosmists have in recent decades been rediscovered and embraced by many Russian intellectuals and are now recognized as essential to a native Russian cultural and intellectual tradition. Although they were scientists; theologians; and philosophers; the Cosmists addressed topics traditionally confined to occult and esoteric literature. Major themes include the indefinite extension of the human life span to establish universal immortality; the restoration of life to the dead; the reconstitution of the human organism to enable future generations to live beyond earth; the regulation of nature to bring all manifestations of blind natural force under rational human control; the transition of our biosphere into a "noosphere;" with a sheath of mental activity surrounding the planet; the effect of cosmic rays and currently unrecognized particles of energy on human history; practical steps toward the reversal and eventual human control over the flow of time; and the virtues of human androgyny; autotrophy; and invisibility.The Russian Cosmists is a crucial contribution to scholarship concerning Russian intellectual history; the future of technology; and the history of western esotericism.