Professor Gligorije Zaječaranović, Ph. D.

Professor Zaječaranović is well-known in Yugoslavia and abroad primarily thanks to his scientific works in the field of philosophy, but also regarding his other social activities and functions that he has successfully performed for many years.
He was born on February 12, 1930, in the village of Veliki Jasenovac near Zaječar where he completed the primary school with excellent grades. He completed the Pedagogical school in Negotin in 1949 at the end of which, as an excellent student, he was awarded by being free from taking the final exam. After a year of military service in the officer school in Niš and after several years of teaching in the primary schools in Serbia he started to study philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade in 1956; he finished his studies in 1960 as the best student of his generation with an average grade of 9,75 for which he was awarded.
The post-graduate studies at the same Faculty he completed in April, 1963, by successful defense of the M. A. thesis "The Theory of Alienation and Discourse Problems in 'The Phenomenology of the Spirit'". He soon had his first book "Analysis and Synthesis in the Context of Hegel and Marx's Dialectics" published in 1966. The ph. dissertation "Dialectics from Kant to Hegel" he defended at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, in April, 1969. Afterwards, he spent six months at the Faculty of Philosophy in Leipzig where he studied the methodology of social sciences.
After completing his graduate studies he was chosen for the post of Assistant for the History of Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade in 1961; he worked there for two years. As M. A. of the philosophical sciences, he became philosophy teacher at the High School for Socio-political sciences in Novi Sad. At the Center for Political Studies in Novi Sad he was chosen, this time completing his ph. d., to be a scientific associate (1969-1970); he remained there till the end of 1971.
In 1969 he published the book "The Dialectics of the Human World" which was followed by two books published in 1971, namely, "The Dialectics of the German Classical Philosophy" and "The General Sociological Bibliography."
He applied for and was accepted as Associate Professor for Logic and Philosophy at the newly-established Faculty of Philosophy in Niš in 1971; he soon became its first Dean. After completing the function very successfully, he was elected Rector of the University of Niš in 1973; he was re-elected in 1975 and remained at the post till October, 1977.
On occasion of the tenth anniversary of the University of Niš, he submitted, at the central assembly meeting, a paper published in the publication "Ten Years of the University of Niš" (1975).
He was elected Professor for the first time at the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade in 1974 where for many years he taught general education disciplines, while he was elected Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of Niš in 1975. As Professor he was Head of the Sociology Department for many years as well as Head of the Chair of Philosophy, later the Chair of Philosophy and Social Theory.
Starting from 1971 Professor Zaječaranović taught Logic and, later, Philosophy to the students of the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš. He successfully worked with students as the tutor of diploma papers; at the post-graduate studies that he was the first to organize at the Sociology Department he was the tutor of many post-graduate students till their M. A. theses. On many occasions he was the tutor for ph. d. candidates as well as member of the commissions for ph. d. defense, not only in Niš, but at other Universities in Serbia as well. He also prepared reports or participated in the commissions for electing professors and teacher assistants at many faculties in former Yugoslavia. He gave lectures to the students at other faculties in Niš and other University centers.
He was awarded the Charter by the Faculty of Philosophy in 1981 for his exceptional contribution to the Faculty development; he was awarded Small Charter by the University of Niš in 1975, in addition to the Charter and the Great Medallion in 1985. He was awarded the Bronze Medallion and the Charter by the Civil Engineering Faculty of Niš in 1975. His book "The Dialectics of the German Classical Philosophy" was awarded the Liberation Prize by the City of Niš in 1972. In 1984 the City Assembly and the socio-political organizations of Niš awarded him a charter for many years of his successful activity and achieved results.
His outstanding scientific activity, starting from 1960 when he published his first papers till the present day, comprises nineteen published books in addition to six other books, including several textbooks, that he was the co-author of. His bibliography includes more than 250 titles (bibliographical items). His papers were published in many anthologies, journals and domestic and foreign publications. Some of these were written and published in German, while a few of them were translated into other languages as well, namely Russian, Polish, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Slovenian, English, Chinese, Hungarian, Rumanian, Slovak, etc. He also participated in preparing and realizing several empirical research projects, either as the leader or a team member. He has been an active participant in many scientific conferences, home and abroad, by submitting papers or reports. Among the most important ones, he participated in the 15th World Congress of Philosophy in Varna in 1973, in several congresses devoted to Hegel, as well as in the First Congress of Yugoslav Philosophers in Budva in 1988. As for the University of Niš, he organized and participated in numerous scientific conferences, as well as other important activities.
Part of Professor Zaječaranović's activities was related to the Philosophical Society of Serbia, the International Hegel's Society and Hegel's Society in Belgrade whose member he is. For a while he was a member of the Managing Board of the Philosophical Society of Serbia.
Professor Zaječaranović's activity in editing is also worth praise. First, as a member of the Editors' Board he took part in editing the journal "Gledišta" in Belgrade (1961-1963), followed by the journal "Polja" in Novi Sad (1965-1968); in Novi Sad, he was one of the founders of the journal "Savremenost" as well as one of the editors (1971-1973). He was also one of the editors of "Filozofske studije" (1972-1073). As Editor-in-Charge he devoted many years of his activity to "Zbornik radova Filozofskog fakulteta" in Niš (1973-1989) and "Marksističke teme" (1978-1982). Regarding "Facta universitatis" he initiated the series "Philosophy and Sociology" whose editor he has been starting from the first issue in 1994; this is the only journal of that kind in foreign languages in Yugoslavia.
Within the Philosophy Edition of the Beogradski izdavačko-grafički zavod, as an outstanding explorer of Hegel's work, he did an expertise review of the German translation of the two most important works of Hegel, namely, of "The Phenomenology of the Spirit" in 1974 and "The Science of Logic" in three volumes (1976, 1977, 1979).
In view of his exceptional contributions and of his noble dedication to his scientific work, Professor Zaječaranović has recently been declared the Man of the Year in 1997 by the American Biographical Institute, while his biography has been published in several biographical publications of the Institute. Many years before, important items of his biography were published in many similar publications in Serbian. Some of his more important works have been analyzed or quoted in a great number of books or papers in many languages, namely, Serbian, Russian, German etc.

Dragoljub B. Đorđević