Frolov Readings: On the 95th Anniversary of Academician I.T. Frolov

Abstract

The article examines the phenomenon of the Frolov Readings, a series of annual academic conferences held in memory of Academician Ivan Timofeevich Frolov (1929–1999). I.T. Frolov was a pioneer in several academic fields, notably global studies, bioethics, and the interdisciplinary study of humanity. He is known not only as a prominent organizer of the country’s philosophical community – as the editor-in-chief of the journal Voprosy Filosofii, President of the Russian Philosophical Society, the first Director of the Institute of Man of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), and Chairman of the Editorial Board of the journal Chelovek – but also as a major public and political figure, including his role as editor-in-chief of the Pravda newspaper. In all these roles, I.T. Frolov worked tirelessly to humanize social relations both in Russia and globally. The conferences commemorating I.T. Frolov have been held since 2001, first at the Institute of Man of the RAS and subsequently at the Institute of Philosophy of the RAS. They arguably constitute the longest-running and most continuously operating academic initiative in Russia’s contemporary philosophical community. The Frolov Readings have become a kind of invisible college for scholars from various disciplines who seek to engage in comprehensive, interdisciplinary research on humanity. Consequently, the presenters at the Readings include philosophers, sociologists, political scientists, psychologists, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, ecologists, and experts in engineering and the technical sciences. In this way, the Readings align with the original vision of the eminent Russian scholar and philosopher, who believed that humanity should be studied holistically, as an integral whole, through the combined efforts of all scientific disciplines. The organizers and participants of the Frolov Readings are guided by I.T. Frolov’s core principle: an adherence to the primacy of the human being and the ideals of humanism.