Yugoslavia: The Rise and Fall of Socialist Humanism (Paperback)

Mihailo Markovic

ISBN 10: 0851249450 / ISBN 13: 9780851249452

Published by Spokesman Books, Nottingham, 2025

About this Item

Paperback. First published by Spokesman in 1975, Yugoslavia: The Rise and Fall of Socialist Humanism opens a window on the thought and fate of the Praxis group of philosophers. Re-issued as a Spokesman Classic. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780851249452

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Yugoslavia: The Rise and Fall of Socialist Humanism (Paperback)
• Publisher: Spokesman Books, Nottingham
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0851249450
• ISBN 13: 9780851249452
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

From the 1975 Introduction:

Intellectual audacity is not a hallmark of most modem East European universities, at any rate in the schools of politics and the humanities. Too much orthodoxy has been the rule, arid even where orthodoxies have changed, the result has not in general been to the profit of the spirit of free enquiry.

Yugoslavia, until 1975, provided a notable exception to this rule. The schools of philosophy at Belgrade and Zagreb Universities provided a stimulus to debate and research not only in Yugoslavia itself, but across Europe both East and West. The review Praxis, published in Serbo-croat and international editions, provided a focus for socialist thought on a variety of crucial topics which were not commonly explored in more conventional institutes, whether because of the dead weight of conformity, or because of the pressure of empirical professionalism (in the traditionally 'liberal' seats of learning in the West). Praxis addressed itself to the problem of the human condition, and encouraged critical thought to invade all those territories which secular authorities, East or West, felt ought to be secured against irreverent trespassers.

Alas, in the Spring of 1975, Praxis went out of existence. Shortly before, after an unprecedented intervention by the Government into the sphere of University self-government, the philosophers of the Belgrade department of Philosophy were all dismissed from teaching.

This little book contains a short history of the Praxis group by Mihailo Markovic, a distinguished spokesman of a most fertile school, and an account by Professor Robert Cohen of the repression which fell upon our Yugoslav colleagues and co-thinkers. It is still possible for the academic community to speak out in defence of intellectual freedom, and it is hoped that this publication will assist it so to do.

Ken Coates, June 1975