1924–1983
○ Illness
Czech Marxist philosopher who coined the phrase "socialism with a human face"
In his final years Richta tried to form a prognostic team that, in his own words, "would rid us of the political curse and allow us to officially examine society."
A Czech Marxist philosopher and sociologist who developed the concept of the 'scientific-technological revolution' and led a 60-author collective to produce Civilization at the Crossroads (1966). The work argued that centralized planning was obsolete in the age of science and technology, providing the theoretical foundation for the Prague Spring's Action Programme; Richta coined its defining slogan, 'socialism with a human face.' After the Warsaw Pact invasion of August 1968, he accommodated himself to Gustáv Husák's normalization regime, directing the Institute for Philosophy and Sociology while purging former colleagues and, in 1977, joining the press campaign against Charter 77 and Jan Patočka.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1944Arrested by Gestapo; imprisoned at Pankrác and Terezín
- 1945–1953Studied at Charles University; PhDr. in philosophy
- 1949–1954Deputy editor-in-chief, Tvorba; editorial board, Rudé právo
- 1954–1966Researcher, Philosophical Institute, ČSAV
- 1966–1968Head of interdisciplinary STR research team; published Civilization at the Crossroads
- 1967Elected corresponding member, ČSAV
- 1969–1982Director, Institute for Philosophy and Sociology, ČSAV
- 1972Elected full academician, ČSAV
Related historical events
Institute Leadership and Academic Reorganization under Normalization
After 1968 Richta joined the normalization regime and in 1970 became director of the newly established Institute for Philosophy and Sociology of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. The Sociology Institute, the Philosophy Institute and the Cabinet for the Theory of Science were abolished in this reorganization, and some of their employees were selectively recruited into the new institute. Historian Michael Voříšek judges that Richta’s directorship lent the operation an appearance of continuity, although it was in fact a large-scale, planned purge. In the 1970s Richta worked on joint projects with Soviet and other socialist-country scientists, publishing works including Man, Science, Technology (1974) and Socialism and Science (1983). He then treated the competition between socialism and capitalism under the scientific-technological revolution as already decided in socialism’s favor and focused on refuting Western theories of post-industrial society. A Czech philosophy reference work also characterizes him as actively participating, from the beginning of normalization, in efforts to suppress the achievements and bearers of 1960s scholarship.