Franjo Marković

Franjo Marković (Križevci, 1845 – Zagreb, 1914) was a Croatian philosopher and writer, an academician and the first professor of philosophy at the University of Zagreb, which was refounded in 1874. He defended philosophy as a metaphysical discipline, distinct both from scholasticism and from positivism and materialism. His main philosophical work, Razvoj i sustav obćenite estetike (1903), surveys the history of aesthetics in the Croatian language and introduced many philosophical terms into it, which made it a landmark of Croatian intellectual history. He is also regarded as the founder of research into Croatia's philosophical heritage.

Born into a family of the minor nobility, he studied classical and Slavic philology in Vienna and later earned his doctorate in philosophy after studying in Dresden, Leipzig, Berlin and Paris. He held the chair of philosophy in Zagreb until his retirement in 1909 and served as rector of the university in 1881–1882. He also sat in the Croatian-Slavonian parliament for Križevci county, where he defended Croatian interests against Hungarian pressure. In teaching he followed Herbart's system, valuing its rigour in conceptual thinking, and he argued that consciousness and freedom cannot arise from matter alone. As an aesthete he was a formalist who nonetheless asked art to embody lasting human values. As a writer he produced lyric poetry, epics and national-romantic dramas, influenced by Adam Mickiewicz, among them Karlo Drački and Zvonimir. His lasting impact lies in shaping Croatian philosophical vocabulary and in his students, notably Đuro Arnold and Albert Bazala.