This foundational work investigates the core tragedy of the human condition through a rigorous re-examination of Norwegian philosopher Peter Wessel Zapffe’s ideas. It achieves this by introducing two pivotal concepts: discriminating experience as an ontological foundation of reality, and liminal acceptance as a mode of coexisting with the existential boundaries of reason. Which path offers a more authentic way to be: the sharp clarity of discrimination or the transformative peace of acceptance at the limit?

What is left for a person when the scale of the tragic goes beyond human life and rises to the size of the universe? When the usual explanations dissipate, and existence itself is revealed as a brief pattern of matter against a background of slow, inexorable decay?

Translated from English into Russian

The second volume of Reality+ raises the question — can the material universe itself turn out to be a product of information? Chalmers takes us through modern models of digital physics and cellular automata, showing how simple binary differences can generate surprisingly complex structures. Even if the foundation of our universe is a set of bits, properly arranged information structures create a world that feels, acts, and remains truly real. But can an ideal simulation, "created from bits", without destroying everyday realism, consist of only numbers?

Translated from Norwegian into Russian

For the first time in Russian, the first complete biography of Peter Wessel Zapffe, a Norwegian pessimist philosopher, whose life is still surrounded by a halo of mystery. The author systematizes Zapffe's legacy and shows him primarily as a living person: the cruelty of his father and the early death of his sister, which influenced the formation of his pessimism, as well as difficult relationships with three women who played an important role in his fate. The book provides access to unique sources — rare diaries, letters, and archival materials, many of which are being published for the first time. This is one of the most important books for understanding not only Zapffe's philosophy, but also the tragic events from which it grew.

"Being human is the only true Hell"

Translated from Norwegian into Russian

The third volume of "On the Tragic" completes the fundamental work of Peter Wessel Zapffe.

It is entirely devoted to the analysis of the cultural and aesthetic phenomenon of the tragic. This volume focuses on the analysis of the tragic in art, theater, myth, and literary tradition, as it relates to emotional reactions and cultural context. The famous text about Job's struggle as an archetype of suffering and opposition to God appears here for the first time. The main idea of this volume is that the tragic cannot be reduced only to the "content" of the plot.

Zapffe also polemicizes with many authors, examines the modern tradition of the tragic in the person of Hegel, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and others, compares different philosophical approaches to catharsis and analyzes poetic examples (Aeschylus, the myth of Orestes, "Hamlet").

Translated from English into Russian

The Conspiracy against the Human Race by Thomas Ligotti is an uncompromising philosophical and essayistic manifesto that calls into question the fundamental assumption of our species.: that being alive is a good thing. Translated by Vladislav Pedder, author of the book "The Tragic Experience" and translator Peter Wessel Zapffe. His task was to create the best, complete translation of the second edition of The Conspiracy against the Human Race. The edition includes a previously untranslated preface by Ligotti. The book contains a hard, clear and reasoned corpus of thoughts about the fatal excess of consciousness, the progenitor of all horrors, about the meaninglessness of existence and how civilizational mechanisms support the "conspiracy" of self—deception. Ligotti does not hide behind euphemisms: he reveals the structure of the "I", shows it as a product of evolution, where we are just puppets, and draws conclusions that cannot be denied. The book is suitable both as an introduction to modern pessimism and as an incriminating text for those who are ready to reconsider the most familiar ideas about life.

Translated from English into Russian

The first volume of Reality+ explores the simulation hypothesis: could our entire universe be the result of a grandiose computational experiment? Philosopher David J. Chalmers, who developed the concept of philosophical zombies in his book The Conscious Mind, offers a new perspective on virtual worlds, taking the reader from the first arcade pixels, modern "life" simulations, to exciting simulations of the future. The boundary between the "real" and the digital dissolves in an endless stream of algorithms.This volume is an invitation to test the strength of the foundations of existence and wonder if our world is a simulation, where the movie "The Matrix" is just the tip of the iceberg.

Translated from Norwegian into Russian

In the second volume, Peter Wessel Zapffe deepens the study of the tragic, focusing on catastrophes and guilt as central trials of human existence. The author demonstrates, how the external triumphs of civilization can conceal the harbingers of decline and technical disasters, exposing the fragility of mind and spirit in the face of an indifferent reality. Through the prism of phenomenological and legal-ethical analysis, Zapffe shows that any aspiration elevated to greatness contains the germ of a fall: our choices and actions inevitably entail responsibility, which echoes with guilt and consequences. The description of the disaster does not appear as an accident, but as a multi-layered process of collision of values, external forces and fatal triggers, while the style of presentation remains strict and precise, but filled with the poetic power of images. Zapffe urges the reader to accept that every hope carries a shadow of loss, and awareness of vulnerability and one's own responsibility makes facing existential disasters an integral part of understanding the depths of tragic experience. This volume makes us think about the structural foundations of suffering and how legal and ethical frameworks help us understand the tragedy of life in the modern world.

Translated from Norwegian and English into Russian

Discover the unknown side of Peter Wessel Zapffe. For the first time in the world, three sensationally found interviews of the great Norwegian pessimist philosopher, hidden in archives for decades. Hear his lively voice: from the early thoughts about suffering that inspired Ligotti, through the "trial of life" to the poignant testament about nihilism as honesty and pessimism towards life. The collection is complemented by five in-depth articles on the connection of his ideas with Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer and Ligotti. This is not just a collection, but a breakthrough in the study of Peter Wessel Zapffe's legacy.

Translated from English into Russian

On the Heights of Despair — the debut work by Emil Michel Cioran (1911–1995), written during a period of chronic insomnia — already contains the seeds of the philosopher’s signature themes. Their exploration brought him neither joy nor solace, yet earned him worldwide notoriety. One chapter concludes: *"These lines were written today, April 8, 1933, on my twenty-second birthday. How strange to realize I have already become a specialist in matters of death."* This is indeed a book from the heights of despair. Handle it with care, and read sparingly — for as Cioran himself warned: "A little knowledge is exquisite; much is revolting. The more you know, the less you wish to know. He who has not suffered through knowledge has never truly known anything."

Translated from Norwegian into Russian

The first volume of Peter Wessel Zapffe's fundamental work On the Tragic explores the nature of the tragic as the ontological basis of human existence. The author takes the analysis beyond aesthetic and literary categories, considering the tragic as a fundamental property of being generated by the contradiction between human aspirations and the indifference of nature.

Translated from Norwegian into Russian

The first Russian edition of two key texts by Norwegian philosopher Peter Wessel Zapffe is the essay "The Last

Messiah" and the first—time published philosophical dialogue "I Choose the Truth", written in collaboration with Herman Tønnessen. Both texts explore the contradiction of human existence, revealing the gap between biological nature and the ability to reflect. Zapffe does not offer solutions, but rather opens his eyes to the deep problems of human existence and self-knowledge.