Franjo Marković
Born in a noble family to father Antun and mother Josipa (b. Šugh), he attended the gymnasium at the Nobility Boarding School in Zagreb.
He served as a representative of the Križevci county in the Parliament of Croatia and Slavonia in the last two decades of the 19th century (at the period of ban Dragutin Károly Khuen-Héderváry).
Marković held lectures on all philosophic disciplines (logic, psychology, physics, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, epistemology, pedagogy and the history of philosophy).
In his era, the concept of "philosophy" also encompassed history, geography, linguistics, anthropology, pedagogy, natural sciences and mathematics, which were taught by other professors.
In his pedagogy, he adhered to the system developed by Johann Friedrich Herbart, which at the period (after the revolutionary 1848, which was much contributed to by young Hegelianists, so the authorities were intent to suppress Hegel's and Kant's influence) was generally accepted in Germany and Austria-Hungary.
He monitored all current spiritual movements, read German, French, English and other authors, and made his students known with their works, even if they were not sanctioned by him.
As the first professor of philosophy with a systematic teaching record, translating and writing in vernacular language (and not Latin or German), Marković made a substantial impact on the development of Croatian philosophical terminology.
On the other side, defending the metaphysics he was confronted with materialism and positivism, which reached Croatia at that period, and where he is followed by his disciple Albert Bazala.
"[4] Herbart's school, as hence the Marković himself, insist on maintaining diversity and irreducibility of psychic and material nature, especially contradicting materialist reducibility of former to the latter.
[8] He denounced naturalism, materialism and Darwin's theory of evolution, which lead to the "bankruptcy of ethics", giving prominence to either egoism, or "benefit to society, as understood by the public".
As opposed to the formalistic and racionalist conception of philosophy, "Marković his personal aspect, his sentimentalism and desireful ponderings ensconces under the veil of poetry.
The tragedy Karlo Drački depicts man's suffering in the struggle for panhuman ideal of freedom against the Rome and Magyar feudal lords.
A bulk of his lecture manuscripts has been preserved,[12] some of which have been processed and published in the periodical Prilozi za istraživanje hrvatske filozofske baštine.
