Yu. A. Ljubimov

This article presents the first systematic account of P. A. Florensky’s major works in both fundamental and applied physics. Although Florensky himself did not regard his works in the field of physics as truly professional, quite a few of them proved to be of a high prognostic value. Particularly significant in this sense is his monograph on «Dielectrics and their application» (1924), predicting the role ofsemi-conductors, the connection between the dielectric permeability of a substance and its molecular structure, etc. The article also analyzes Florensky’s book «Imaginarities in geometry» (1922) in connection with his interpretation ofspecial relativity theory, showing that Florensky turned out to have reached a number of extremely profound conclusions that were confirmed in the subsequent development of physics, such as those concerning the existence of black holes, the direction of lime flow, etc.