I was not familiar with Professor Miščević, but philosopher Marko Jurjako from the Universit of Rijeka (who is also the EIC of the European Journal of Analytic Philosophy) shared this very interesting message about his contributions and career:
I'm not sure if you have ever met him, but he was a highly influential figure in analytic philosophy in Central and Southeast Europe, particularly in post-Yugoslav countries including Croatia and Slovenia. He was one of the most cited philosophers from Croatia and a pioneer in analytic philosophy in the post-Yugoslav region. His work spanned philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, epistemology, ethics, and political philosophy. In international circles, he was perhaps best known for his work on philosophical thought experiments and nationalism studies in political philosophy. Although he was trained in the continental tradition of philosophy, he later turned to analytic philosophy, which didn't stop him from continually working to bridge the two traditions. From the late 1970s until the early 1990s, he worked at the Philosophy Department at the University of Zadar, Croatia. From there, he was basically expelled in the early 1990s by influential political figures backed by the nationalist Croatian government for being a political liberal and an analytic philosopher. As Nenad's colleague Dunja Jutronić described at his funeral in Rijeka yesterday, he and his colleagues in Zadar were targeted as proponents of "the false liberalism and Western democracy, and that so-called analytic philosophy....". After that, since 1993, Nenad's main affiliation was with the Department of Philosophy at the University of Maribor (Slovenia), where he worked until his untimely death.
Besides his scholarly work, Nenad had several other important contributions. He trained several generations of philosophers in Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, and beyond. He also played a key role in establishing philosophy departments at the University of Rijeka (Croatia), University of Maribor (Slovenia), and the Central European University (formerly based in Budapest and now in Vienna). Moreover, from 1996 to 1999, he was the president of the European Society for Analytic Philosophy. Additionally, he was one of the main organizers of several philosophy conferences in Dubrovnik (Croatia) over several decades, where many prominent analytic philosophers from Europe and the United States, as well as readers of your blog, had the chance to meet him and recognize his importance for analytic philosophy in Central and Eastern Europe.
There have been several memorial notices, including those by the Croatian Society for Analytic Philosophy, the Department of Philosophy at the University of Maribor, the Department of Philosophy at the Central European University, and the European Journal of Analytic Philosophy. I would be grateful if you could add a notice about his untimely death so that the news and the significance of his work for this part of the world could reach as many people as possible.
I've opened comments for remembrances from those who knew Professor Miščević or for those who wish to comment on the significance of his work.
