Mihailo Marković (1923–2010) fought in the people’s liberation struggle and was captain of the Yugoslav People’s Army. After the war, he studied philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade. He was elected to be a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Philosophy in 1951, and was promoted to the position of lecturer two years later. He finished his PhD at the same faculty in 1955, and another one in 1956 at the University of London. As of 1963, he was a full professor, and in 1966-67 also Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy. He was suspended from the faculty in 1975 as “politically unfit”, and dismissed in 1981. He worked in the Centre for Philosophy and Social Theory of the Institute of Social Sciences from 1981, all the way to his retirement in 1986.
He lectured at numerous universities in Europe, USA, Mexico and Japan. He received an honorary PhD from the University of Lund, Sweden. He was the co-Chairman of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, vice-president of the International Union for Future Studies, and a member of the International Institute of Philosophy in Paris. He was a founder and the first Director of the Institute of Philosophy of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade (1967–1975), editor of the Praxis International journal which was published in Oxford (1980–1989) and a member of the editorial board of the Praxisa journal (1963–1975).
He was elected a corresponding member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA) in 1963, and a full member in 1983. He was Deputy Secretary of the Department of Social Sciences (1985–1989), and Secretary from 1998 to 2001. He was elected a member of the SASA Presidency in 2002, followed by his appointment as SASA representative in the International Academic Union in Brussels.
He was also active in SASA working bodies: Board for Philosophy and Sociological Theory, Interdepartmental Board for the Protection of the Environment, Board for Population Studies, Group for Constitutional and Legal Issues, Interacademic Board for Philosophy and Sociological Theory, Board for the Dictionary of Fine Arts Terms, Interdepartmental Board for the Study of Human Rights and National Minorities.
He received numerous awards and accolades: the 7th July Award of SR Serbia, the October Prize of the City of Belgrade, Medal of Courage, Order of the Merit to the People of the third degree, Order of Brotherhood and Unity of the second degree, Order of Labour of the third degree.
In the 1980s, he was one of the authors of the SASA Memorandum concerning the position of Serbian people in the Yugoslav Federation. He was one of the founders of the Socialist Party of Serbia and the author of the programme principles of that party.
