Posthumanism in Russia and Russian Cosmism

The article is devoted to the specifics of understanding humanism and the future of humanity in Russian culture. The article argues that the ideas of the Western post humanist discourse have little in common with the Russian realities. Unlike posthumanism and transhumanism, which absolutize the achievements of biotechnologies, Russian cosmism asserts the fundamental irreducibility of the human essence to one or another of its technogenic substitutes. The article contested the thesis about the technological determinism of the culture of the near future. The article expressed the thesis on a specific feeling, which plays an important role in the methodology of the knowledge of Russian Сosmism and, at the same time, is characteristic of Russian culture. This specific feeling should be distinguished from sensualism, which is considered by J. Billington as the most important characteristics of the Russian culture of the Silver Age. The article expresses the thesis that the cosmic character of aspirations can be regarded as an essential characteristic of the culture of the Silver Age. In Russian cosmism, both in the period of the Silver Age and in its modern concepts, there is no idea about the loss of a human’s central position, which is an essential characteristic of posthumanism. For Russian cosmism, it is important to reveal the boundless evolutionary potential of the human heart.