Ivan Focht

rdf:langString Ivan Focht

rdf:langString Ivan Focht

rdf:langString Ivan Focht

rdf:langString Sarajevo, Kingdom of Yugoslavia,

rdf:langString Yugoslav

rdf:langString Ivan Focht (7 June 1927 – 20 October 1992) was a Yugoslav philosopher and mycologist. Focht was born in Sarajevo to a Jewish family on June 7, 1927. All members of his family were killed during the Holocaust. He finished elementary and high school in Sarajevo. Focht graduated from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, after which he returned to Sarajevo where he was elected assistant at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo. Shortly after he moved back to Zagreb where he lived for the rest of his life, until his death. Focht was philosopher of phenomenological orientation, who in the early works departed from the Marxist and psychological interpretations of art. Music is in his texts had ontological priority over all other arts. In the art of music, particularly that of Bach, Focht tried to uncover the importance of achieving pythagorean music. Bach's music, as interpreted by Focht, is not a mere reflection of the subject, nor a reflection of social reality, just as it is not an expression of human feelings, but the secret of life organized and tuned to the cosmic laws. Focht, beside the aesthetics, has published several important books about mushrooms. He was also one of the first thinkers and critics of science fiction in Croatia, considering that our age is the time of death of philosophy, or age of science and science fiction. Focht died in Zagreb on October 20, 1992, and was buried at the Mirogoj Cemetery.