View source for Cosmicism

{{Short description|Literary philosophy}}
{{Distinguish|Cosmism (disambiguation){{!}}Cosmism}}
{{redirects here|Cosmicist|the scientific profession|Cosmologist}}
[[File:H. P. Lovecraft in DeLand Florida, June 1934.png|thumb|upright|[[H. P. Lovecraft]], writer and creator of cosmicism.|alt=A June 1934 photograph of H. P. Lovecraft, facing left]]

'''Cosmicism''' is American author [[H. P. Lovecraft]]'s name for the literary [[philosophy]] he developed and used for his fiction.<ref>Joshi, ''The Annotated H. P. Lovecraft'', p. 12.</ref><ref name=LOVE>{{cite web
 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4cvLY6FX2yhsChKS8HT7hbX/seven-surprising-ways-h-p-lovecraft-influenced-our-pop-culture
 |title=Seven surprising ways H.P. Lovecraft influenced our pop culture (5. Bleak Philosophy)
 |website=BBC
 |access-date=2 June 2019
 |quote=Lovecraft dubbed his view of the world ‘cosmicism’, in which all the achievements and inherently noble qualities of humans and humanism pale in comparison to the vast indifference of the rest of the universe.
 |archive-date=20 May 2019
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190520204946/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4cvLY6FX2yhsChKS8HT7hbX/seven-surprising-ways-h-p-lovecraft-influenced-our-pop-culture
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref> Lovecraft was a writer of [[Horror fiction|horror stories]] that involve [[occult]] phenomena like [[astral projection]] and [[Extraterrestrial life|alien]] [[miscegenation]], and the themes of his fiction over time contributed to the development of this philosophy.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=https://bookriot.com/2019/02/19/cosmic-horror/
 |title=Your Introduction to the Cosmic Horror Genre
 |last=Davis
 |first=Sarah S.
 |date=19 February 2019
 |website=BOOKRIOT
 |publisher=RIOT NEW MEDIA GROUP
 |access-date=2 June 2019
 |quote=Lovecraft’s fiction established the Cosmicism literary philosophical movement, of which cosmic horror is one example.
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190602073544/https://bookriot.com/2019/02/19/cosmic-horror/
 |archive-date=2 June 2019
 |url-status=dead
 }}</ref>

The philosophy of cosmicism is explained as the idea that "there is no recognizable [[divinity|divine]] presence, such as a [[god]], in the [[universe]], and that humans are particularly insignificant in the larger scheme of [[intergalactic space|intergalactic]] existence."<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Nguyen
 |first=Trung
 |date=20 December 2016
 |title=History of Humans
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BI7FDQAAQBAJ&q=cosmicism&pg=PT159
 |series=Is There a God?
 |volume=3
 |publisher=EnCognitive
 |quote=Cosmicism [is] [t]he literary philosophy…stating that there is no recognizable divine presence, such as God, in the universe, and that humans are particularly insignificant in the larger scheme of intergalactic existence.
 |isbn=9781927091265
 |access-date=16 October 2020
 |archive-date=26 May 2021
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210526165600/https://books.google.com/books?id=BI7FDQAAQBAJ&q=cosmicism&pg=PT159
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref> The most prominent theme is humanity's fear of their insignificance in an incomprehensibly large universe:<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Peak
 |first=David
 |year=2014
 |title=The Spectacle of the Void
 |location=U.S.A.
 |publisher=Schism Press
 |page=15
 |isbn=978-1503007161
 |quote=This [Lovecraftian] paralysis is caused by the realization that the underlying problem…[is] that incalculably large void which envelopes us all.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
 |url=https://www.hk01.com/%E5%93%B2%E5%AD%B8/78008/h-p-%E6%B4%9B%E5%A4%AB%E5%85%8B%E6%8B%89%E5%A4%AB%E7%89%B9-%E5%85%8B%E8%98%87%E9%AD%AF%E7%A5%9E%E8%A9%B1-%E9%A1%9B%E5%80%92%E5%BA%B7%E5%BE%B7%E7%9A%84%E6%81%90%E6%80%96-03-15
 |title=HP Lovecraft: The Cthulhu myth, upside down Kant's horror
 |author=Philosophical Team
 |date=15 March 2019
 |website=Hong Kong News
 |publisher=Hong Kong 01 Ltd.
 |language=zh-hant
 |trans-title=H.P. 洛夫克拉夫特：克蘇魯神話，顛倒康德的恐怖
 |access-date=2 June 2019
 |quote=‘Cosmicism’ [is such that] [t]he universe transcends human imagination and is unimaginably huge. When human beings…face this near-infinite macro…[they] will feel extreme fear, and they are on the verge of madness because of their smallness and absolute powerlessness. The fear of the ‘wake' people facing the great existence constitutes the core idea of Lovecraft's horror literature.
 |archive-date=17 May 2019
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517092908/https://www.hk01.com/%E5%93%B2%E5%AD%B8/78008/h-p-%E6%B4%9B%E5%A4%AB%E5%85%8B%E6%8B%89%E5%A4%AB%E7%89%B9-%E5%85%8B%E8%98%87%E9%AD%AF%E7%A5%9E%E8%A9%B1-%E9%A1%9B%E5%80%92%E5%BA%B7%E5%BE%B7%E7%9A%84%E6%81%90%E6%80%96-03-15
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web
 |url=https://themorningnews.org/article/h.p.-lovecraft-author-is-dead
 |title=H.P. Lovecraft, Author, Is Dead
 |last=Baldwin
 |first=Matthew
 |date=15 March 2012
 |website=tmn
 |publisher=The Morning News LLC
 |access-date=2 June 2019
 |quote=The defining feature of Cosmicism is…the utter insignificance of [hu]man[kind].
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191021193056/https://themorningnews.org/article/h.p.-lovecraft-author-is-dead
 |archive-date=21 October 2019
 |url-status=dead
 }}</ref> a fear of the cosmic [[Void (philosophy)|void]].<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Peak
 |first=David
 |year=2014
 |title=The Spectacle of the Void
 |location=U.S.A.
 |publisher=Schism Press
 |pages=57, 59
 |isbn=978-1503007161
 |quote=Julia Kristeva defines the void as ‘the unthinkable of metaphysics’…[T]he void…is that which lies beyond comprehension…[an inability] to correlate what we see with [what we] previously understood…This is the horror of the void: humans coming face to face with displacement, alienation, and the meaninglessness of life in the universe}}</ref>

==Analysis==
Cosmicism and human centric views of the universe are incompatible.<ref name=LOVE/><ref>{{cite web
 |url=https://www.patheos.com/blogs/gloryseed/2017/08/lovecrafts-cosmicism-works-fails/
 |title=Lovecraft's Cosmicism: What it Is, How It Works, and Why It Fails
 |last=Wiley
 |first=C.R.
 |date=24 August 2017
 |website=patheos
 |access-date=2 June 2019
 |quote=Cosmicism is based on the idea that humanism is an illusion.
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191226195628/https://www.patheos.com/blogs/gloryseed/2017/08/lovecrafts-cosmicism-works-fails/
 |archive-date=26 December 2019
 |url-status=dead
 }}</ref> Cosmicism shares many characteristics with [[nihilism]], though one important difference is that cosmicism tends to emphasize the insignificance of humanity and its doings, rather than summarily rejecting the possible existence of some greater purpose (or purposes); e.g., in Lovecraft's [[Cthulhu Mythos|Cthulhu stories]]. It is not the absence of meaning that causes terror for the protagonists, as it is their discovery that they have absolutely no power to change anything in the vast, indifferent universe that surrounds them. In Lovecraft's stories, whatever meaning or purpose may be invested in the actions of the cosmic beings is completely inaccessible to the human characters.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=https://www.hk01.com/%E5%93%B2%E5%AD%B8/78008/h-p-%E6%B4%9B%E5%A4%AB%E5%85%8B%E6%8B%89%E5%A4%AB%E7%89%B9-%E5%85%8B%E8%98%87%E9%AD%AF%E7%A5%9E%E8%A9%B1-%E9%A1%9B%E5%80%92%E5%BA%B7%E5%BE%B7%E7%9A%84%E6%81%90%E6%80%96-03-15
 |title=HP Lovecraft: The Cthulhu myth, upside down Kant's horror
 |author=Philosophical Team
 |date=15 March 2019
 |website=Hong Kong News
 |publisher=Hong Kong 01 Ltd.
 |language=zh-hant
 |trans-title=H.P. 洛夫克拉夫特：克蘇魯神話，顛倒康德的恐怖
 |access-date=2 June 2019
 |quote=For Kant, the island on which human beings are located is the only place of truth (meaning true knowledge)…But for Lovecraft, the island is called 'ignorance'...[the Lovecraftian gods'] actions, thoughts, and moral values are completely incomprehensible to human beings, and the gods are indifferent to human life and values.
 |archive-date=17 May 2019
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517092908/https://www.hk01.com/%E5%93%B2%E5%AD%B8/78008/h-p-%E6%B4%9B%E5%A4%AB%E5%85%8B%E6%8B%89%E5%A4%AB%E7%89%B9-%E5%85%8B%E8%98%87%E9%AD%AF%E7%A5%9E%E8%A9%B1-%E9%A1%9B%E5%80%92%E5%BA%B7%E5%BE%B7%E7%9A%84%E6%81%90%E6%80%96-03-15
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref>

Lovecraft's cosmicism was a result of his feeling of humanity's [[existential]] helplessness due to what he called the "infinite spaces" revealed by science, and his belief that humanity was fundamentally at the mercy of the vastness and emptiness of the cosmos.<ref>Fritz Leiber "A Literary Copernicus," ''Discovering H. P. Lovecraft'', ed. Darrell Schweitzer (1987).</ref> In his fictional works, these ideas are often described by fantastic dream-like narratives (''[[The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath]]'', 1927), by his well-known [[Cthulhu Mythos]] ("[[The Call of Cthulhu]]," 1928, and others), and sometimes by humor ("[[Herbert West–Reanimator]]", 1922). Common themes related to cosmicism in Lovecraft's fiction are the insignificance of [[human]]ity in the universe<ref>Price, "Lovecraft's 'Artificial Mythology'", ''An Epicure in the Terrible'', p. 247.</ref> and the search for knowledge ending with disaster.<ref>
Price, "Introduction", ''The New Lovecraft Circle'', pp. xviii&ndash;xix. Price writes: "One seeks forbidden knowledge, whether wittingly or, more likely, unwittingly, but one may not know till it is too late... The knowledge, once gained, is too great for the mind of man. It is [[Prometheus|Promethean]], [[Faustian]] knowledge. Knowledge that destroys in the moment of enlightenment, a [[Gnosis]] of damnation, not of salvation."</ref>

Lovecraftian characters notably become insane from the [[Non-Euclidean geometry#Fiction|elimination of recognizable geometry]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Peak |first=David |title=The Spectacle of the Void |publisher=Schism Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1503007161 |location=U.S.A. |pages=27, 28 |quote=[O]f [Lovecraft’s] extra-dimensionality…[i]t is the horror of unknown interiors, the failure of our geometry.}}</ref> Lovecraft's work also tended to suggest fear of the other to the reader, such as in the stories "[[The Dunwich Horror]]" and "[[Dagon (short story)|Dagon]]", often describing that which is unknown as a terrible threat to humanity.

==Cosmic indifferentism==
Though cosmicism seems pessimistic, Lovecraft thought of himself as neither a [[Pessimism|pessimist]] nor an [[Optimism|optimist]] but rather a "scientific" or "cosmic" indifferentist,<ref>{{cite book |title=Lord Dunsany, H.P. Lovecraft, and Ray Bradbury: Spectral Journeys |author=William F. Touponce |page=62 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-8108-9220-0}}</ref> a theme expressed in his fiction.  In Lovecraft's work, human beings are often subject to powerful beings and other cosmic forces, but these forces are not so much malevolent as they are indifferent toward humanity.<ref>Price, "Lovecraft's 'Artificial Mythology'", p. 249.</ref> This indifference is an important theme in cosmicism. The noted Lovecraft scholar [[S. T. Joshi]] asserts that "Lovecraft constantly engaged in (more or less) genial debates on [[religion]] with several colleagues, notably the pious writer and teacher [[Maurice W. Moe]]. Lovecraft made no bones about being a [[Negative and positive atheism|complete]] [[atheist]], and he considered religion not merely false but dangerous to social and political progress."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.acidlogic.com/stjoshi.htm|title=S.T. Joshi Interview – Acid Logic e-zine|website=www.acidlogic.com|access-date=2006-05-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190619004246/http://www.acidlogic.com/stjoshi.htm|archive-date=2019-06-19|url-status=dead}}</ref> As such, Lovecraft's cosmicism is not religious at all, but rather a version of his [[mechanism (philosophy)|mechanistic]] [[materialism]]. Lovecraft thus embraced a philosophy of ''cosmic indifferentism''. He believed in a meaningless, mechanical, and uncaring universe that human beings, with their naturally limited faculties, could never understand completely. His personal beliefs made no allowance for religious claims which could not be evidenced scientifically. The incomprehensible, cosmic forces of his tales have as little regard for humanity as humans have for insects.<ref>Mariconda, "Lovecraft's Concept of 'Background'", pp. 22&ndash;3, ''On the Emergence of "Cthulhu" & Other Observations''.</ref>

Though irreligious personally, Lovecraft used various gods as characters in his stories, particularly the [[Cthulhu]]-related tales, to expound cosmicism. However, Lovecraft never conceived of them as supernatural, but [[extraterrestrial life in popular culture|extraterrestrials]] who understand and obey a set of natural laws which to human understanding seem magical. These beings (the [[Great Old Ones]], [[Outer Gods]] and others) &ndash; though dangerous to humankind &ndash; are portrayed as neither good nor evil, and human notions of morality have no significance for these beings. Indeed, they exist in cosmic realms beyond human understanding. As a symbol, this is representative of the kind of universe that Lovecraft believed in.<ref>Burleson, "The Lovecraft Mythos", ''Survey of Science Fiction Literature'', p. 1284.</ref> Though some of these beings have &ndash; and in some cases create &ndash; cults to honor them, to the vast majority of these beings the human race is so insignificant that they are not given any consideration whatsoever.

==See also==
* {{Annotated link |Absurdism}}
* {{Annotated link |Apatheism}}
* {{Annotated link |Determinism}}
* {{Annotated link |Existential nihilism}}
* {{Annotated link |Existentialism}}
* {{Annotated link |Fatalism}}
* {{Annotated link |Lovecraftian horror}}
* {{Annotated link |Misanthropy}}
* {{Annotated link |Misotheism}}

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist|30em}}

===General references===
*{{cite book |author-last=Johnson |author-first=Brian |year=2016 |chapter=Prehistories of Posthumanism: Cosmic Indifferentism, Alien Genesis, and Ecology from H. P. Lovecraft to Ridley Scott |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Ch0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97 |editor1-last=Sederholm |editor1-first=Carl H. |editor2-last=Weinstock |editor2-first=Jeffrey Andrew |title=The Age of Lovecraft |location=[[Minneapolis]] |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]] |pages=97–116 |doi= |jstor=10.5749/j.ctt1b9x1f3.9 |isbn=978-0-8166-9925-4}}
*{{cite book|first=S. T.|last=Joshi|author-link=S. T. Joshi|chapter=Introduction|title=The Annotated H. P. Lovecraft|date=August 1997|location=New York, NY|publisher=Dell|isbn=0-440-50660-3|chapter-url-access=registration|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/annotatedhplovec00love|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/annotatedhplovec00love}}
*{{cite book|first=Michel|last=Houellebecq|author-link=Michel Houellebecq|title=H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life|year=1999|location=Brooklyn, NY|publisher=McSweeny|isbn=1-932416-18-8 |title-link=H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life}}
*{{cite book|first=Sandro D.|last=Fossemò|author-link=Sandro D. Fossemò|title=Cosmic Terror from Poe to Lovecraft|year=2010|location=Italy |title-link=Cosmic Terror from Poe to Lovecraft}}
*{{cite news|first=M. V. Lakshmi|last=Reddy|author-link=M. V. Lakshmi Reddy|title='Cosmicism' the True Eternal Theism: Realising the Supreme Cosmic Reality through Basic Cosmic Education for Global Adults|journal=Indian Journal of Adult Education|year=2015|volume=76|number=4|pages=15–32}}
*{{cite news|first=M. V. Lakshmi|last=Reddy|author-link=M. V. Lakshmi Reddy|title= Cosmicism, Eternal, Supreme, Scientific Theism-cum-Philosophy|journal=University News - A Weekly Journal of Higher Education|year=2021|volume=59|number=30|pages=8–13}}

{{H. P. Lovecraft}}
{{Horror fiction}}
{{Metaphysics}}

[[Category:H. P. Lovecraft]]
[[Category:Philosophical theories]]
[[Category:Types of existentialism]]
[[Category:Science fiction themes]]
[[Category:20th-century neologisms]]
[[Category:Cosmism]]