Radovan Richta

Radovan Richta (June 6, 1924 – July 21, 1983) 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 ("Man and Technology in the Revolution of Our Day"), 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 ("Civilization at the Crossroads") in 1966. "Crossroads" was a compilation work published by 60 authors (including and led by Richta) that "attempt[ed] 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 (ČSAV - Československá akademie věd) in 1969 - 1982,.

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 (or man-hunting). 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 ("Man and technology in the revolution of our days") and Komunismus a proměny lidského života (K povaze humanismu naší doby) ("Communism and changes of human life. To the nature of humanism of our time").

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