Gajo Petrović. (12 March 1927 – 13 June 1993) was one of the main theorists in the

Marxist humanist Marxist humanism is an international body of thought and political action rooted in an interpretation of the works of Karl Marx. It is an investigation into "what human nature consists of and what sort of society would be most conducive to huma ...

Praxis School The Praxis school was a Marxist humanist philosophical cycle, whose members were influenced by Western Marxism. It originated in Zagreb in the SFR Yugoslavia, during the 1960s. Prominent school's theorists include Gajo Petrović and Milan Ka ...

in the

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...

. He was the only one among the editors of the ''Praxis'' journal to stay in this position throughout the journal's publication. He is credited by Milan Kangrga to be the mastermind behind the Korčula Summer School, which was a meeting place for Marxists and other philosophers from the East and the West in the 1960s and 1970s.

Biography

Petrović was born on 12 March 1927 in Karlovac,

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

. He has started learning philosophy at the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb ( hr, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, ; la, Universitas Studiorum Zagrabiensis) is the largest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of ...

. From 1946 to 1948 he was in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

as an exchange student, where he recognized the repression of philosophical thought under

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

. After that, he came back to Yugoslavia, completing his studies and earned his PhD at the University of Zagreb in 1956 with a dissertation concerning the philosophical views of Georgi Plekhanov. Upon graduating, from 1950 he taught

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premise ...

and theory of philosophy at this university until his retirement. He presided over the Croat Philosophical Society from 1963 to 1964. In 1964 he was elected for president of the Yugoslav Philosophical Society. Petrović was one of the leaders of the Yugoslav criticism of the Stalinist philosophical theses since the early 1950s. In the early 1960s, his philosophical views evolved towards an interpretation of

Marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...

based on the philosophical works of the young Karl Marx. This was in line with the creative line of thought of a self-management socialism which dominated the Yugoslav political landscape at the time. However, his continuous radical criticism of the dogmatic ideology of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia led to an open conflict. In 1968 Petrović openly supported the student protests, which was a pretext for his expulsion from the party at June 8 meeting of the Zagreb University Party Committee. Petrović's ''Selected Works'' in four volumes were published in 1986. In 2001, a collection of articles in his honour were published in Zagreb, entitled ''The Reality and the Criticism''. Petrović died on 13 June 1993.

Philosophical views

Petrović has opposed the interpretation of

Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

's philosophical views as dialectical materialism and has insisted that the Marx's philosophy was thought of the revolution which is contemplating the possibility of revolutionary change of the existing inhuman world.

Major works

*''Engleska empiristička filozofija. Odabrani tekstovi filozofa'' (''The English Empiricist Philosophy'') (1955) *''The Philosophical Views of G. V. Plekhanov'' (1957) *''Logic'' (1964). tal. transl. Logica per la III classe dei ginnasi, 1968* ''Od Lockea do Ayera.'' (''From Locke to Ayer'') (1964) *''Philosophy and Marxism'' (1965) (published in English under the title ''Marx in the Mid-Twentieth Century: A Yugoslav Philosopher Considers Karl Marx's Writings'' (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1967) *''The Possibility of Man'' (1969) *''Philosophy and Revolution'' (1971) *''Why Praxis'' (1972) *''The Thought of Revolution'' (1978) *''Marx and the Marxists'' (1986) *''U potrazi za slobodom: povijesno-filozofski ogledi'' (''In Quest of Liberty'') (1990)

Notes

References

External links

Gajo Petrović ArchiveBiography of Gajo Petrović
(in Serbo-Croatian)

(in Serbo-Croatian)
''I Admit''
(in Croatian)

(in Serbo-Croatian)
Gajo Petrović - čovjek i filozof

Gajo Petrović, filozof iz Karlovca
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petrovic, Gajo 1927 births 1993 deaths Marxist theorists Marxist humanists Yugoslav atheists Yugoslav humanists Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb alumni Academic staff of the University of Zagreb People from Karlovac Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery Yugoslav philosophers