Radovan Richta

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Radovan Richta

Radovan Richta (born June 6, 1924 in Prague ; † July 21, 1983 ibid) was a Marxist-oriented Czechoslovak sociologist and philosopher who coined the term "scientific-technical revolution" and dealt with the associated problem of substituting physical work dealt with through intellectual work - especially under the conditions of socialism. With his project “Civilizace na rozcestí” (“Civilization at the Crossroads”, also known as the “ Richta Report ”) he created an economic, technological and sociological forecast of the future development towards an information society with all social and human aspects. The results of Richta's entire collective of authors were reflected, among other things, in the idea of ​​“socialism with a human face”, which played a central role in the process of the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia in 1968.

During the time of the occupation of the country by the National Socialist German Reich , Richta joined the resistance, was arrested and interned in the Pankrác prison in Prague and in the Small Fortress Theresienstadt , which was a Gestapo prison at the time . He was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KPTsch), 1968 to 1971 a member of the Central Committee of the CPTsch.

Life

Radovan Richta graduated from high school in 1943 during the time of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and then worked as an assistant in the Avia aircraft factory . At this time he also joined the Czechoslovak resistance movement and, together with his friend Karel Hiršl , took part in the work of the illegal Předvoj resistance group . In October 1944 he was arrested and interned in the Pankrác prison in Prague and then in the Terezin Small Fortress . In Theresienstadt, Richta fell ill with typhus and several lung diseases as well as TBC ; his immune system was disrupted. He apparently owed his life to a group of the Swiss Red Cross who, as “proof of good will”, allowed the administration of the concentration camp to take some seriously ill prisoners with them to Switzerland.

Richta studied natural sciences and later philosophy at Charles University in Prague (1945–1950); he achieved his doctorate in 1953. He was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and worked in their press organs. From 1954 he worked as a research assistant at Filozofický ústav ČSAV (FÚ ČSAV, Philosophical Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences) and conducted studies on the philosophical and sociological system of TG Masaryk and on questions of communist humanism. After a creative forced break from 1960 to 1964 in a TBC sanatorium, he resumed his work at the academy, albeit with a 50 percent reduction in earning capacity. Already convalescent, he began to devote himself to the subject of the scientific and technical revolution in socialism and worked in several editorial offices of specialist journals. From 1967 he was a member-correspondent of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (from 1972 a full member) and became internationally known through participation in several conferences. These include the World Sociological Congress in Varna in 1970, where he headed the Czechoslovak delegation, as well as the conferences in Moscow, Toronto, etc. In 1970 he also became director of the Institute for Philosophy and Sociology of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (ÚFS ČSAV) and remained so until 1983 .

Theoretical work

In his first work, Člověk a technika v revoluci našich dnů (Man and technology in the revolution of our day) from 1963, Richta presented his technology concept and, in general, the concept of the scientific-technical revolution. The book later served as the basis for his major work Civilizace na rozcestí (Civilization at the Crossroads) of 1966 and earned the concept and problem of technology to become a central theme of Czech Marxist philosophical thought of the 1960s.

Richta played a key role in drafting the official party documents for the Prague Spring , including the program of action . In this context he recognized the existence of alienation in the so-called socialist states of Eastern Europe and opposed the previously postulated subordination of the individual to the collective. Richta led an interdisciplinary team for the questions of the scientific-technical revolution and belonged together with the teams of Ota Šik (questions of economic reform), Pavel Machonin (questions of social structure) and Zdeněk Mlynář (questions of reform of the political system ) to the most important theoretical preparers of the Prague Spring. Overall, however, his proposed solutions for social transformation are rated as not as radical as those of Machonin, for example.

Richta report

The history of Czechoslovak sociology influenced Richta especially as a result of a decision of the Central Committee of the CPC, in which he was commissioned to write a report for the XIII. Party congress (1966) to create the questions of the scientific technical revolution. Richta became the head of an interdisciplinary team of scientists for research into the social and human relationships of the scientific-technical revolution. This report, on which a collective of 61 authors worked, appeared in the same year under the title Civilizace na rozcestí (Civilization at the Crossroads), also known in Germany as the “Richta Report”, and is considered Richta's most important work.

In this work Richta turned his attention to the problem of replacing physical work with intellectual work and tried to draw up a technological and sociological prognosis of further developments, that is, the consequences of the scientific and technical revolution.

criticism

Richta's theoretical work is often accused of being a believer in technology: in contrast to the later report by the Club of Rome , for example, Richta's thought that natural resources might at some point be finite (which then implies the limits of growth, as in Donella Meadows' ), played no role. Nevertheless, the majority of experts agree that Richta's prognoses and assessments for the time and taking into account the circumstances in the creation were groundbreaking and his report is described as the forerunner of the later report of the Club of Rome.

Another criticism concerned Richta's political path. On the one hand, he formulated and represented important scientific theories in the 1960s and helped establish some scientific disciplines. After the suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968 and during the so-called normalization that followed, he was also actively involved in negating these successes: unlike Pavel Machonin, who became the first victim of the purges after 1968, Richta came to terms with the system and was able to pursue his career continue what was held against him after 1989: “It was a human failure of these personalities,” is how sociologist and historian Milan Petrusek assesses the role of Richta and others.

Publications

Main work
  • Radovan Richta (et al.): Civilizace na rozcestí. Společenské a lidské souvislosti vědeckotechnické revoluce , Svoboda, Prague 1966, 236 pages, no ISBN; online at: sds.cz / ...
  • Radovan Richta (et al.): Civilization at the crossroads. Social and human connections of the scientific-technical revolution (Richta-Report) , Prague 1968 (2nd edition), 203 pages, translation: Gustav Solar; Reprint: Verlag an der Basis (Freiburg); Edition: 1 (1968); numerous other translations
other publications (selection)
  • Radovan Richta: Česká otázka a Masarykova kosmopolitní filosofie , Prague 1953
  • Radovan Richta: Vědecko-technická revoluce a socialismus , Svoboda, Prague 1971 (together with Jindřich Filipec)
  • Radovan Richta: Člověk - věda - technika. K marxisticko-leninské analýze VTR , Svoboda, Prague 1974 (co-author)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Radovan Richta , short biography of the Philosophical Faculty of the Masaryk University of Brno, online at: phil.muni.cz / ...
  2. ↑ a b c d Karel Ondryáš: Akademik Radovan Richta. K 75. výročí narození Radovana Richty , in: Marathon 4/1999, July 1999, reprint on the website of the Strana Demokratického socialismu (SDS) party, online at: sds.cz / ...
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Michael Voříšek: Richta Radovan , keyword in Sociologická encyklopedie (Sociological Encyclopedia), ed. from Sociologický ústav AV ČR (Sociological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic), online at: encyklopedie.soc.cas.cz / ...
  4. ↑ a b c d Michael Voříšek: Machonin Pavel , keyword in Sociologická encyklopedie (Sociological Encyclopedia), ed. from Sociologický ústav AV ČR (Sociological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic), online at: encyklopedie.soc.cas.cz / ...
  5. ↑ Ústav pro filosofii a sociologii ČSAV (1970–1990) , keyword in Sociologická encyklopedie (Sociological Encyclopedia), portal of the ÚFS ČSAV, online at: encyklopedie.soc.cas.cz / ...
  6. ↑ a b Lubomír Nový et. al. (Ed.), Czech Philosophy in the XXth Century , Czech Philosophical Studies II, Chapter 13: Technology and Czech Philosophy , publication by the Council for Research in Values ​​and Philosophy, online (archived) at: crvp.org / ...
  7. ↑ Peter-Claus Burens: The GDR and the "Prague Spring" , Chapter II: Political Ideas of the Prague Spring, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1981, ISBN 3 428 05018 5 , online at: books.google.de / ...
  8. ↑ Miloslav Formánek: Civilizace na rozcestí - podněty aproblemémy , in: Marathon 4/1997, August 1997, reprint on the website of the Strana Demokratického socialismu (SDS) party, online at: sds.cz / ...
  9. ↑ Radovan Richta (et al.): Civilization at the crossroads. Social and human connections of the scientific-technical revolution (Richta-Report) , Prague 1968 (2nd edition), 203 pages, translation: Gustav Solar; Reprint: Verlag an der Basis (Freiburg); Edition: 1 (1968); numerous other translations; here in particular in Chapter 2, upheavals in work, qualifications and education
  10. ↑ František Kutta: Vzpomínka na interdisciplinární tým R. Richty , in: Marathon 4/1997, August 1997, reprint on the website of the Strana Demokratického socialismu (SDS) party, online at: sds.cz / ...
  11. ↑ Pavel Sirůček, Zuzana Džbánková: Radovan Richta - the PRedecessoR of the club of Rome and the 4.0 vision , in: acta oeconomica Pragensia, 26/2018, page 59, online at_: aop.vse.cz / ... , page 59
  12. ↑ Miloslav Petrusek, article in: Česká sociologie v letech 1965–1989 , a conversation on the subject of Czech sociology 1965–1989 from May 27, 2003 with the participation of 16 sociologists, moderated by Oto Sedláček, in: Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review , 5 / 2004, pages 695–740 (here page 705), online at: sreview.soc.cas.cz / ...

See also

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Richta, Radovan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Marxist-oriented Czechoslovak sociologist and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague
DATE OF DEATH July 21, 1983
Place of death Prague