Žarko Puhovski (born 15 December 1946) is a

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n professor, political analyst, philosopher and intellectual, former president of the Croatian Helsinki Committee.

Biography

Puhovski was born in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

on 15 December 1946. He was born to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

mother although he has never been an active Jew. Puhovski received attention at an early age, when he became the president of his gymnasium as a member of the committee of the Alliance of Socialist Youth. He was expelled from the League of Communists of Croatia for a paper on sex and contraception, but was subsequently reinstated by Miko Tripalo, the secretary of the City Committee of the League of Communists. After studying

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

for two years he headed to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, but returned to Zagreb in 1968 enrolling at the Faculty of Political Sciences. In December 1969 he was appointed as the editor-in-chief of the ''Omladinski tjednik'' ("Youth weekly"), taking only 4 months to be discharged. The newspapers he edited were banned for insulting the President of the Republic. He graduated in 1973, and became an assistant at the Institute of Philosophy of the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb (, ) is a public university, public research university in Zagreb, Croatia. It is the largest Croatian university and one of the oldest continuously operating universities in Europe. The University of Zagreb and the Unive ...

. Since 1975, he has been teaching political philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy. As a professor he held guest lectures at the Universities of

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, Klagenfurt and

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. He is a member of The Ethikon Institute in

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. He is the scientific director of the European University Center for Peace Studies in Stadtschlaining,

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. In 1971 he was a witness for the trial of Croatian student leaders Dražen Budiša and Ivan Zvonimir Čičak. In 1988, he co-founded of the first alternative Yugoslav political organisation UJDI (''Udruženje za Jugoslavensku demokratsku inicijativu'', " Association for Yugoslav Democratic Initiative"). He was an active member of the Croatian Helsinki Committee (HHO), since its inception in 1993, serving as its President from 2000 to 2007. He served as an editor in various periodicals: '' Ideje'' (1970–1973); '' Kulturni radnik'' (1971–1982); '' Praxis'' (1973–1975); '' Teka'' (1975); '' Filozofska istraživanja'' (1980–1986). He translated numerous books and studies from German and English, published about two hundred works in political philosophy,

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

, philosophy of

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

and

social sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...

. He was awarded with European Club of Rectors Extraordinary Award for Peace and against Xenophobia 1993.

Works

Some of his major works include: * ''Interes i zajednica'' (1975) * ''Kontekst kulture'' (1979) * ''Povijest i revolucija'' (1980) * ''Um i društvenost'' (1989) * ''Socijalistička konstrukcija zbilje'' (1990) * ''Leksikon temeljnih pojmova politike'' (1990) * ''Politics and Economics of Transition'' (1993)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Puhovski, Zarko 1946 births Croatian human rights activists Croatian Jews Croatian pacifists 20th-century Croatian philosophers Living people Academic staff of the University of Zagreb 21st-century Croatian philosophers