The Project of 'Common Cause' by N. F. Fedorov as an Ideological Prerequisite for the Civilizational Development of Modern Russia

The article analyzes the ideological foundations of N. F. Fedorov’s philosophy the “common cause”. The Russian thinker considering death as a true evil expresses the conviction that the path to overcoming it lies through universal resurrection. The meaning of the resurrection itself is to restore life to their fathers and ancestors through universal love, brotherhood and asceticism. Fedorov sees the imperfection of philosophy in its unpreparedness to participate in a common cause. From his point of view, in its current form, it is a thought of idleness or a game of concepts. To adapt it to a common cause, it is necessary to make it an active knowledge that combines theoretical and practical reason and has educational power. The source of the strength of philosophy itself lies in its moral religiosity. Therefore, ethics is the main branch of philosophy, comprehending freedom as a project action of a person, aimed at achieving immortality and unification in the name of this whole humanity. An imperfect society is the result of the failure to fulfill the filial duty to the fathers, the loss of brotherhood and kinship. Surrogates of morality took the place of the latter – citizenship and statehood as anonymous structures, indifferent to everyone’s personal fate and kinship. Moral society is based on gathering as a union of sons in the name of a common cause. It should be managed by wise leaders who are able to take responsibility for the upbringing and education of their people, their preparation for a common cause. A true story is the tribal life of the mind, which has overcome strife and dependence on nature. In the project (more precisely – the project action), resurrection is carried out as a state of mind inherent in a person who thinks about business. Fedorov called this state the natural community of descendants and ancestors. It is connected directly with Christ’s resurrection and involves the restoration of the entire human race. Fedorov identifies several levels of organization of Russian civilization (Sofia, life, peacemaking, environmental, space, technological and “knowledge”), which correspond to certain project activities in the framework of a common cause. Russia has come a long way since Fedorov proposed his draft common cause. Of course, much could not be done from what he planned. Something went its course and that it was difficult to foresee in advance. Nevertheless, many criteria of civilizational development justified by Fedorov can be used for design today. The proposed model of sophisticated civilization has not lost its relevance.