The philosopher who gave perestroika its humanist foundations: from defending genetics to founding the science of Man
"I criticize the very concept of 'Party science.' Politics concerns only the philosophical interpretation of science, not the evaluation of science itself" — Genetics and Dialectics, 1968
A Marxist philosopher who dismantled Lysenkoism on philosophical grounds. As Gorbachev's advisor, he placed 'authentic humanism' at the core of perestroika and pioneered bioethics and the interdisciplinary study of Man. Served as Pravda editor-in-chief and Politburo member.
Career Timeline
- 1953Graduated Philosophy Faculty, Moscow State University (silver medal)
- 1958Kandidat in philosophy — Determinism and Teleology
- 1965–68Assistant to CPSU Central Committee Secretary for Ideology
- 1966Doctor of Philosophical Sciences — Problems of Biological Methodology
- 1968–77Editor-in-chief, Voprosy Filosofii; publishes Genetics and Dialectics
- 1976 / 1987Corresponding member, then full Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences
- 1986–87Editor-in-chief, Kommunist; host of 'Philosophical Conversations' on Central TV
- 1987–89Science, education and culture advisor to General Secretary Gorbachev
- 1989–91Editor-in-chief, Pravda
- 1989–90Secretary, CPSU Central Committee
- 1990–91Member of Politburo, CPSU Central Committee
- 1991–99Founding director, Institute of Man, Russian Academy of Sciences
Related historical events
New Humanism and the Integrated Study of Man
At the center of Frolov's philosophy lay the concept of 'new humanism.' He argued that the crises of modern civilization (the threat of nuclear war, ecological destruction, and the unchecked advance of biotechnology) could only be resolved by overcoming the split between science and the humanities, which had developed in isolation from one another. His core argument was straightforward: reason and humanity must complement each other for the survival of humankind, and only a humanized science could direct technology toward the common good.
From the 1970s onward, Frolov elaborated the concept of 'global problems' (глобальные проблемы), redefining them not as mere technical challenges but as fundamentally socio-ethical issues. At a 1985 Boston University conference, he argued that the global ecological crisis could paradoxically serve as a foundation for human unification, presenting the shared task of overcoming environmental catastrophe as a driving force to end the Cold War. Drawing on Marx's early writings, he redefined human beings not as separate from nature but as participants in natural processes, a position he connected to Vladimir Vernadsky's concepts of the biosphere and noosphere.
Frolov contended that the 'Century of Biology' must give way to the 'Century of Anthropology.' Within an integrated human science (человековедение) that would overcome the dualism of natural science and the social-humanistic disciplines, philosophy was to perform a threefold function: integrative, methodological, and value-regulative. The institutional fruit of this vision was the Institute of Man (Институт человека), which he founded under the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1991, alongside the journal Chelovek (Человек) as a forum for this interdisciplinary project. Though the collapse of the Soviet system left his project unfinished, Frolov is credited with introducing the frameworks of bioethics, global studies, and integrated anthropology into Soviet philosophy for the first time.