Radovan Richta


Radovan Richta was a Czech philosopher who coined the term technological evolution; a theory about how societies diminish physical labour by increasing mental labour. Richta was born in Prague.
Richta's first work was Člověk a technika v revoluci našich dnů, published in 1963. This work did much to bring the concept of technology into the forefront of philosophical thought during the 1960s. Richta then went on to publish Civilizace na rozcestí in 1966. "Crossroads" was a compilation work published by 60 authors that "attempt to analyze the social and human implications of the scientific and technological revolution". The concepts touched on in "Crossroads" are considered by some philosophical historians to be very ground-breaking for their time.
Richta developed the famous term of "Socialism with a human face" serving as a motto of the Prague Spring period. He became the director of the Institute for Philosophy and Sociology of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1969 - 1982.

Life

During World War II, Richta organized a resistance movement against the Nazis, and his organization became part of the communist resistance in the critical moment of the worst persecution. Richta was arrested and held prisoner for several months. He was saved by the Swiss Red Cross when they collected prisoners with the worst cases of tuberculosis and extracted them to Switzerland. Shortly after the rescue Ritcha's former fellow prisoners were executed on May 2, 1945.
After the war Richta became quite ill, and beginning in 1958 he periodically spent time in sanatoria. In between bouts of sickness, and in a compromise with his doctors who prescribed complete bed rest, Richta studied and worked very hard.
In the 1960s Richta took on the role of the leader of an interdisciplinary research team. In 1963 they released their first works - Člověk a technika v revoluci našich dnů and Komunismus a proměny lidského života .

Selected works

  1. Člověk a technika v revoluci našich dnů ; Published by Czechoslovak society "for the dissemination of political and scientific knowledge" in Prague.
  2. Komunismus a proměny lidského života ; Part 1 of Richta's PhD dissertation, published by Czechoslovak society "for the dissemination of political and scientific knowledge".
  3. Civilizace na rozcestí - společenské a lidské souvislosti vědecko-technické revoluce . Published by Liberty in Prague, 1st edition 1966, 2nd edition 1967, 3rd edition 1969.
  4. Vědecko-technická revoluce a socialismus ;.
  5. Člověk - věda - technika. K marxisticko - leninské analýze VTR Kolektivní práce pod vedením B. M. Kedrova, R. Richty, S. P. Odujeva
  6. Vědecko-technická revoluce a marxismus ; Published in monthly issues of peace and socialism - 1.
  7. Ekonomika jako civilizační dimenze ; Contribution for the Proceedings of the Institute of Economic Sciences. Resource No. 42 team in an interdisciplinary FU Academy of Sciences.
  8. Vědecko-technická revoluce a alternativy moderní civilizace ; Published in the journal Sociological č.5/1968.
  9. Krize perspektiv buržoazní společnosti Abbreviated as printed in the monthly New Idea No. 1 / 1975.