Đuro Arnold

In 1880 he was promoted as the first PhD in philosophy at the University of Zagreb, with a thesis Ethics and history (Etika i povijest), which was published in 1879.

[2] As a writer, his work is a continuation of Croatia's romantic poetry in the tradition of August Šenoa and Franjo Marković.

He mostly published patriotic songs, romances and ballads with themes from Croatian history and folklore (Krapinske elegije, Damjan Juda, knez dubrovački, Kata Lovićeva etc.

[2] As a philosopher, he was influenced by Leibniz, Johann Friedrich Herbart and Hermann Lotze, representing the "spiritualist positivism" movement and the view that the knowledge of the world can be reached only by the combined efforts of science, art and religion.

[4] In the treatise Zadnja bića ("Last beings", Rad JAZU, 1888, 93 ) he conceived a world composed from the variety of simple, immutable soullike "last beings" that are connected by the feeling of touch and hierarchically arranged according to different levels of awareness, with absolute consciousness, the God, occupying the peak of the hierarchy.

[2] According to Arnold, faith represents the supreme stronghold of a man and the basic principle of harmony of his spiritual functions.

[5] According to some opinions, in his later works such as O psihologiji bez duše and Monizam i kršćanstvo (Rad JAZU, 1909, 176 and 178) Arnold has abandoned his earlier philosophical views.

[2] At Arnold's proposal, in 1896 the Pedagogical Seminar for theoretical and practical training of future secondary school teachers was founded at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb.