Plato’s concepts Space and Earth in K.E. Tsiolkovsky’s fantastic story “Beyond the Earth”

Abstract

The article for the first time makes a comparative analysis of the concepts of the Cosmos and the Earth of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato and the founder of astronautics K.E. Tsiolkovsky. A hypothesis is put forward that the philosophical basis for writing the fantastic story “Out of the Earth” by Tsiolkovsky is the interpretation of the Cosmos and the Earth from Plato’s dialogues “Phaedo”, “Timaeus”, “Critias”. The novelty of the study is seen in the fact that for the first time the deep penetration of Plato’s philosophy into the structure of Tsiolkovsky’s story “Out of the Earth” is revealed. The relevance of the study is due to the lack of coverage of this scientific problem. The definitions Cosmos, Earth are given in the understanding of Plato and Tsiolkovsky. The results of a comparative analysis of the concepts of Cosmos and Earth, the interpretation of the terms kalos cosmos, epimeleia heautou (take care of yourself) in Plato’s dialogues and in Tsiolkovsky’s story “Out of the Earth” are presented. It is suggested that the concept of the ideal Cosmos and the probability of the death of the Earth in the Platonic sense are implied in the text of the story “Out of the Earth” to solve scientific and creative problems of the early twentieth century — space flights and the creation of space settlements. The influence of Plato’s dialogues “Phaedo”, “Timaeus”, “Critias” on the style of Tsiolkovsky’s story is revealed. The questions of the originality of the genre of Tsiolkovsky’s story, its artistic features, the role of dialogues, ekphrasis are considered. It is proved that the concept of dual worlds of the ancient Greek philosopher is invariably traced in the storylines, landscape sketches, in the dialogues of the heroes of the story “Out of the Earth”. This idea of Plato will become the main one in the philosophy of Tsiolkovsky. Resettlement in space, in his opinion, means for mankind familiarization with the Cosmos — a perfect beautiful creation. Life in space settlements will save people from suffering, disease, war and give them immortality. An analysis of the concepts of Cosmos and Earth by Plato and Tsiolkovsky allows us to conclude that the idealistic views of Plato acquired a technogenic, purely materialistic, realistic embodiment in the work of Tsiolkovsky and became an incentive for technological progress, opening up new ways for the development of mankind.