Kopnin, Pavel Vasilevich

Born Jan. 27, 1922, in Gzhel’, Ramenskoe Raion, Moscow Oblast; died June 27, 1971, in Moscow. Soviet philosopher. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1970). Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1967). Member of the CPSU from 1943.

After graduating from the philosophy department of Moscow State University in 1944, Kopnin was engaged in research and teaching in Tomsk, Moscow, and Kiev (from 1947 to 1962). Kopnin was director of the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR from 1962 to 1968 and of the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR from 1968 to his death. He was a member of the editorial board of the journal Voprosy filosofii (Problems of Philosophy) from 1963 to 1971 and of Filosofskaia entsiklopediia from 1961 to 1970. Kopnin’s principal works deal with dialectical materialism and the methodology and logic of science. He pioneered in developing the logic of scientific research in the USSR. Kopnin was awarded two orders and a medal.