Born in a teacher's family in the Khulo district, Adjara, an autonomous republic of then-Soviet Georgia, Makharadze graduated from the Tbilisi State University with a degree in philosophy in 1970.
Since then he has been working for the Tbilisi-based Institute of Philosophy, now part of the Ilia State University.
From 1986 to 2010, Makharadze oversaw the publication of a 4-volume history of the Georgian philosophical thought, for which he received the National Prize of Georgia (2011).
In February 2004 he became a member of the Parliament of Georgia and in June he was elected to the Supreme Council of Adjara, a regional legislature reelected after Abashidze's resignation.
He was the only candidate for this position as the other one, also a member of the anti-Abashidze movement, Koba Khabazi, had earlier withdrawn his nomination.