Владислав Педдер – The Experience of the Tragic (страница 14)

Therefore, real suicide prevention must consist in a system where biological awareness is organically integrated with social policy and public health initiatives: regulation of access to psychoactive substances (including alcohol), improvement in quality of life, expansion of early intervention and crisis services, and the integration of psychological support tailored to individuals’ neurobiological profiles. Only such a comprehensive, multidisciplinary model – one that draws equally on philosophical reflection on the value of life, scientific knowledge about genetics and neurobiology, and practical strategies of social support – can reduce suicide risk and offer those standing on the edge not abstract questions, but concrete paths to survival.

3. Adaptation to meaninglessness

Acceptance of mortality, as discussed earlier, opens the door to an even deeper question: if existence is limited, how can one find meaning in a life devoid of inner purpose? This dilemma, intensified by the awareness of the chaotic nature of the world, forces the mind to seek ways to order and stabilize the perception of reality.

However, the problem of meaninglessness goes beyond simple logic. It affects the emotional and cognitive structures of a person, which often seek to compensate for the awareness of absurdity by creating subjective meanings. These adaptation strategies allow the gap between the finiteness of life and the desire for meaning to become not a catastrophe, but a new starting point.

In this section, we explore how the idea of meaninglessness has become one of the central challenges of the human mind. We look at the ways in which humans overcome this conflict, from distraction and creativity to philosophical reflection on their role in a chaotic world. But before that, I would like to introduce you to an underrated Norwegian philosopher and mountaineer, Peter Wessel Zapffe (1899—1990), who wrote about the tragic plight of man in this world and who greatly influenced me.

The Tragic Peter Zapffe

Peter Zapffe is a Norwegian philosopher who was little known outside his homeland until recently. His works began to resonate with Russian and English-speaking audiences after the translation of his work Den sidste Messias (Russian: “The Last Messiah”) into these languages, as well as through the influence of the American writer Thomas Ligotti, who in 2010 published his novel The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror, which reflected Zapffe’s ideas. In mid-2024, Ryan L. Schouler released an English translation of Zapffe’s magnum opus, Om det tragiske (On the Tragic). The Russian edition was published in 2025. Thomas Ligotti’s essay has not been officially published in Russian due to copyright issues and is distributed on the Internet and in samizdat in a translation by revliscap.

In his work, Peter Zapffe4used an approach called biosophy.

Biosophy is an approach in which Zapffe looks at human life and existence through the lens of biology and evolution. He emphasizes that human life is the result of a biological process, and that biology determines many of our existential problems, such as the realization of death and the meaninglessness of existence. Zapffe’s biosophy emphasizes that the biological process is not designed to create meaning in life, but only confronts humans with the challenge of existing in a world devoid of timeless goals. The biosophical method is used to study human existence from a biological perspective. In this way, humans are understood on the basis of what we know about biology, that is, on an empirical basis (Zapffe,

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