Svetozar "Sveta" Stojanović (

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * Pertaining to Serbia in Southeast Europe; in particular **Serbs, a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans ** Serbian language ** Serbian culture **Demographics of Serbia, includes other ethnic groups within the co ...

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: Светозар Стојановић; 18 October 1931 – 7 May 2010) was a Serbian philosopher and political theorist.

Biography

Svetozar Stojanović was born in 1931, in

Kragujevac Kragujevac ( sr-Cyrl, Крагујевац, ) is the List of cities in Serbia, fourth largest city in Serbia and the administrative centre of the Šumadija District. It is the historical centre of the geographical region of Šumadija in central Se ...

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () h ...

(present day

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

) and received a PhD in philosophy from the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade () is a public university, public research university in Belgrade, Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it me ...

in 1962. Together with seven other professors and teachers, called The Praxis Group, he was expelled from the

in January 1975 for dissident activities during

Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito ( ; , ), was a Yugoslavia, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who served in various positions of national leadership from 1943 unti ...

's regime in Yugoslavia. He returned to the University in the early nineties as socialist Yugoslavia was falling apart. From 1992 to 1993, he served as a special adviser to former Yugoslav President

Dobrica Ćosić Dobrica Ćosić (, ; 29 December 1921 – 18 May 2014) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician, writer, and political theorist. Ćosić was twice awarded the prestigious NIN award for literature and Medal of Pushkin for his writing. His books hav ...

. Stojanović was a longtime critic of

Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан Милошевић, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the President of Serbia between 1989 and 1997 and President of the Federal Republic of Yugos ...

, and one of the protagonists in the October 2000 Serbian democratic revolution which culminated in the overthrow of Milošević. He was appointed to the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation by former Yugoslav President

Vojislav Koštunica Vojislav Koštunica ( sr-cyrl, Војислав Коштуница, ; born 24 March 1944) is a Serbian former politician who served as the last President of Serbia and Montenegro, president of FR Yugoslavia from 2000 to 2003 and as the Prime Min ...

, and later became a member of the Council for Foreign Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia. Stojanovic was a member of the

Council for Secular Humanism The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a U.S. nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal and to fight the influence of religion in government. History The Center for Inquiry was established in 1991 by ...

International Academy of Humanism The International Academy of Humanism, established in 1983, is a programme of the Council for Secular Humanism. It was established to recognize great humanists and disseminate humanist thinking. According to its declared mission, members of the ...

, a member of the Paris International Institute of Philosophy (''Institut International de Philosophie'') and the Academy of Humanistic Studies in Moscow. In 1973 he was one of the signers of the ''

Humanist Manifesto II ''Humanist Manifesto II'', written in 1973 by humanists Paul Kurtz and Edwin H. Wilson, was an update to the previous ''Humanist Manifesto'' published in 1933, and the second entry in the '' Humanist Manifesto'' series. It begins with a stat ...

''. He was co-chairman of the

International Humanist and Ethical Union Humanists International (known as the International Humanist and Ethical Union, or IHEU, from 1952–2019) is an international non-governmental organisation championing secularism and human rights, motivated by secular humanist values. Fou ...

, 1985-87. He was a long-time director of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory in Belgrade and the member of the governing board of Korčula Summer School. Stojanović was a visiting professor at many prominent universities in the United States, Germany, Great Britain, Austria, and India. With Djuro Kovacevic, another Serbian political theorist, Stojanović was a co-founder and president of the Serbian-American Center in Belgrade, which developed into the Center for National Strategy, and the Forum for Serbian-American Dialogue and Cooperation. He was the chief editor of '' Praxis International'' from 1987–1990 and, most recently, a member of the editorial council of ''Philosophy & Social Criticism'', based in Boston. Stojanović authored seven books, four brochures, and 130 journal articles. His works have been translated into fourteen languages, including English, German, French, Russian, Spanish, and Japanese.

Selected works

#Stojanovic S. (1973) ''Between Ideals and Reality: A Critique of Socialism and its Future''. Oxford University Press #Stojanovic S. (1981) ''In Search of Democracy in Socialism: History and Party Consciousness''. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books #Stojanovic S. (1988) ''Perestoika: from Marxism and Bolshevism to Gorbachev''. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books #Stojanovic S. (1997) ''The Fall of Yugoslavia: Why Communism Failed''. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books #Stojanovic S. (2003) ''Serbia: The Democratic Revolution''. Buffalo, NY: Humanity Books

References

External links

Foreign Affairs Review of Serbia: The Democratic Revolution

1971 article in the New York Review of Books

2010 documentary on Stojanovic by Serbian Radio and Television
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stojanovic, Svetozar 20th-century Serbian philosophers Serbian political philosophers Academic staff of the University of Belgrade University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy alumni 1931 births 2010 deaths