Mihailo Đurić ( Serbian

Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...

: Михаило Ђурић; 22 August 1925 – 25 November 2011) was one of Serbia's most prominent philosophers. He was a professor at the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in 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 merged with the Kragujevac-b ...

Law School A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

and member of the

Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Serbica, sr-Cyr, Српска академија наука и уметности, САНУ, Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, SANU) is a national academy and the ...

. Within the frame of

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian language, Sumerian c ...

Greek culture, he studied

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

, but also modern

political theory Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, l ...

and

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns m ...

. A majority of his works are within the field of

and method of

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

, history of

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

theories A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be s ...

and

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

. In the past two decades, his work was mainly devoted to the study of

Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, Prose poetry, prose poet, cultural critic, Philology, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philo ...

and

Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...

. Đurić studied law, philosophy and classic philology in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, where he obtained his PhD with the thesis on ''Ideas of the Natural Law in Greek Sophists'' (1954). He was professor at Law School from 1954 until 1973, when, for political reasons, he was removed from the University. In 1954 he was appointed as Research Fellow at the University of Belgrade's Law School, where he was later promoted to Assistant Professor in 1957, Associate Professor in 1964, and full Professor in 1969. He taught History of Political Theory, General Sociology and Methodology of Social Science.Mihailo Djurić biography, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
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Trial and imprisonment

In 1972, Mihailo Đurić was expelled from the University, tried and sentenced to 9 months in prison for his criticism of the 1971 Constitutional Amendments as well as his opposition to demolishing of the Petar Petrović Njegoš chapel on

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. The discussion at the Law Faculty was delivered in a public discussion within the University building and the article on Njegoš in a literary review written in opposition to the destruction. During his trial and imprisonment, many public figures expressed their opposition to then Yugoslav communist government, among them philosopher

Ernst Bloch Ernst Simon Bloch (; July 8, 1885 – August 4, 1977; pseudonyms: Karl Jahraus, Jakob Knerz) was a German Marxist philosopher. Bloch was influenced by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx, as well as by apocalyptic and religious thinkers ...

. After the release from prison Đurić was formally employed at the Institute of Social Sciences in Belgrade, from 1974 until 1989, when he returned to University. From his release from prison (1972), he was also a visiting professor at the Universities of

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

.Jasna Dragovic-Soso: Saviours of the Nation: Serbia's Intellectual Opposition and the Revival of Nationalism, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, Oct 9, 2002 page 44 In 1991, after rehabilitation, he returned to Law School. For many years Đurić was a member of the Institute of Philosophy at the

University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy The University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy ( sr, Филозофски факултет Универзитета у Београду), established in 1838 within the Belgrade Higher School, is the oldest Faculty at the University of Belgrade ...

, the Scientific Council of which he chaired from 1986 until 1998.

Nietzsche and Heidegger

Starting from 1980s, Đurić's writings both in Serbian and in German fundamentally contributed to our understanding of the works of

and

and the crucial link between these two philosophers. While his ''Nietzsche and the Metaphysics'' (1984) and ''The Challenge of Nihilism'' (1986) concentrate mainly on Nietzsche, the ''On the Need of Philosophy Today: Philosophy between East and West'' is mainly a book about Heidegger and his reading of Nietzsche.

Selected bibliography

Đurić's prominent works in Serbian

* , 1954 (The Idea of Natural Law among the Greek Sophists) * , 1962 (Problems of the Sociological Method) * , 1964 (Sociology of Max Weber) * , 1968 (Humanism as Political Ideal :A Study of Greek Culture) * , 1972, (Disaster of the Iskustvo razlike: Suočavanje s vremenom- Beograd, 1994 (The Experience of Difference : Facing the Modern Age) * , 1984 (Nietzsche and the Metaphysics) * – Beograd, 1986 (The Challenge of Nihilism) * , 1989 (Myth, Science, Ideology. Outline of a Philosophy of Culture) * , 1989 (Philosophy in Diaspora. Petronijevics “Principles of Metaphysics”) * , 1992 (Roads to Nietzsche : Contributions to the Philosophy of Future) * , 1994 (The Experience of Difference : Facing the Modern Age) * , 1999 (On the Need of Philosophy Today: Philosophy between East and West) * , 2001 (Origin and Future of Europe : Odyssey of one ancient philosophic Idea) * , 2002 (The Fragile Human Good. Contemporary Importance of Aristotle 's Practical Philosophy) * , 2003 (Serbia and Europe between Past and Future. Annals of the Yugoslav Tragedy) * , 2003

Đurić's prominent works in German

* , Amsterdam 1979. * , Berlin 1985. * , Würzburg, 1986. * , Würzburg, 1990. * , München, 1993.

Editor and coauthor

*Das Denken am Ende der Philosophie. In memoriam

Dušan Pirjevec Dušan Pirjevec, known by his nom de guerre Ahac (20 March 1921 – 4 August 1977), was a Slovenian Partisan, literary historian and philosopher. He was one of the most influential public intellectuals in post–World War II Slovenia. Earl ...

(Ljubljana 1982) *Kunst und Wissenschaft bei Nietzsche (Würzburg 1986) *Nietzsches Begriff der Philosophie (Würzburg 1990) *Nietzsche und Hegel (Würzburg 1992) *Die serbische Philosophie heute (München 1993)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duric, Mihailo 1925 births 2011 deaths Serbian legal scholars 20th-century Serbian philosophers 21st-century Serbian philosophers Serbian political philosophers Serbian political scientists Serbian social scientists Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts University of Belgrade faculty University of Belgrade Faculty of Law alumni Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts