The Path to the Institute of Man

The article describes the main stages of the formation of the scientific direction of complex interdisciplinary human research in our country in the 1980s. These stages include: the Second All-Union Conference on the Comprehensive Research of Man (1988), the First All-Union Conference “Man, Science, Society” (1989), the first meeting of the Council of the All-Union Interdepartmental Center for Human Sciences (1989). During these scientific forums, the scientific program of the Institute of Man was discussed. The discussion was attended by philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, historians, physicians, physiologists, geneticists, specialists in the field of technical sciences. During the discussions, proposals were made about the goals and objectives of the research work of the Institute of Man. The problems of man and his future have become aggravated, and ideas for their comprehensive study continue to remain relevant. An overview of documentary materials found in the archive of I.T. Frolov by the Group for the Study of his Creative Legacy of the RAS Institute of Philosophy. The materials are devoted to the main events on the way of the formation of the RAS Institute of Man. These include the transcript of the round table on the topic “Is a Unified Science of Man Possible? Institute of Man — Idea and Reality”, which took place in 1988 within the framework of the Second All-Union Conference on the Comprehensive Research of Man. During the discussion, various conceptual proposals were made for the development of anthropological topics in the country. In addition, the transcripts of the First All-Union Conference “Man, Science, Society”, organized in 1989 by the All-Union Interdepartmental Center for Human Sciences, were studied to discuss the work on the implementation of the State General Academic Program “Man, Science, Society: Comprehensive Research”. Within the framework of the conference, the first meeting of the Council of the All-Union Interdepartmental Center for Human Sciences was held in the Red Hall of the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, at which the structure and forms of work of the Center, the Institute of Man and the journal “Chelovek” were discussed.