“That Is Why I Want to Be the Chekhov of Science ...”: Materials for a Historiographical Description of the Philosophical Tsiolkovskiana

Abstract

The article presents a historiographical and biographical overview of the philosophical heritage of K.E. Tsiolkovsky, examined in the context of his personal fate, religious-mystical experience, family tragedies, and self-perception as a genius. Based on autobiographical notes, essays, and scholarly works, the article analyzes the sources of the formation of Tsiolkovsky’s “cosmic philosophy”: the influence of deafness, unrequited love, the loss of children, reading (N.F. Fedorov, D.I. Pisarev, Jules Verne, Wells), as well as his contradictory relations with Christianity, Buddhism, and Marxism. The research methodology is based on historico-philosophical reconstruction, comparative analysis of K.E. Tsiolkovsky’s autobiographical and philosophical texts, as well as a critical review of Russian historiography (from works of the 1960s–1970s to contemporary publications). The main result consists in identifying the internal contradictions of his “cosmic philosophy”, where materialist positions coexist with panpsychism, occult motifs, and the ethics of “rational egoism”. The argumentation revolves around a biographical hypothesis: key philosophical intuitions (atomistic immortality, “kill the suffering one”, the interpretation of Christ as a genius of morality) are formed in response to personal traumas – deafness, unrequited love, and the suicides of his children. The limitations of the study are associated with its review nature: a detailed analysis of archival materials and comparative source criticism remain beyond the scope of this work. The conclusion is drawn about the paradoxical yet significant place of Tsiolkovsky in the history of Russian philosophy – not as a systematic academic philosopher, but as an existentialist thinker and science fiction writer whose ideas continue to influence contemporary discussions about space, ethics, and the meaning of existence.