Abstract
Konstantin E. Tsiolkovskii (1857–1935), a Russian scientist, was an inspiring pioneer in aeronautics and space travel. In addition to his important scientific writings, Tsiolkovskii envisioned a future with immortal humans, progressively evolving in the Darwinian struggle for existence and leaving the Earth by rocket-powered vehicles to inhabit the endless universe. Tsiolkovskii's futuristic ideas, a blend of fantasy and science, are explained in terms of Adlerian concept of fictionalism. Physically handicapped, living in dire poverty, holding the low social position of a school teacher in a Russian provincial town, disrespected by other teachers, his scientific works ignored by scientists, Tsiolkovskii resorted to fictionalism, that is, to the creation of a personal hierarchy of values and goals. Fictionalism allowed him to escape daily reality and search for an improved life among immortal humans in a coming Utopian society existing somewhere in the universe.
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