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Jan Patočka (; 1 June 1907 – 13 March 1977) was a Czech philosopher. Having studied in
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
,
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,
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, and
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, he was one of the last pupils of
Edmund Husserl Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (; 8 April 1859 – 27 April 1938) was an Austrian-German philosopher and mathematician who established the school of Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology. In his early work, he elaborated critiques of histori ...
and
Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...
. In Freiburg he also developed a lifelong philosophical friendship with Husserl's assistant Eugen Fink. Patočka worked in the
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, (Czech language, Czech and Slovak language, Slovak: ''Československá socialistická republika'', ČSSR) known from 1948 to 1960 as the Czechoslovak Republic (''Československá republika)'', Fourth Czecho ...
for almost his entire career, but never joined the Communist Party and was affected by persecution, which ended in his death as a dissident spokesperson of
Charter 77 Charter 77 (''Charta 77'' in Czech language, Czech and Slovak language, Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members ...
. Patočka was a prolific writer and lecturer with a wide range of reference, contributing much to
existential phenomenology Existential phenomenology encompasses a wide range of thinkers who take up the view that philosophy must begin from experience like phenomenology, but argues for the temporality of personal existence as the framework for analysis of the human condi ...
as well as the interpretation of Czech culture and European culture in general. From his Czech collected works, some of the most notable have been translated to English and other major languages. These include the late works ''Plato and Europe'' (1973) and ''Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History'' (1975), in which Patočka developed a
philosophy of history Philosophy of history is the philosophy, philosophical study of history and its academic discipline, discipline. The term was coined by the French philosopher Voltaire. In contemporary philosophy a distinction has developed between the ''specul ...
identifying the Socratic-
Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born  BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
nic theme of the care of the soul as the basis of "Europe".


Early life

Patočka attended
Jan Neruda Grammar School Jan Neruda Grammar School () is a Czech state secondary school situated in Prague. It is named after the writer, Jan Neruda. The school ranks as the second best secondary (high) school, and the best public (state, i.e. attended for free) secondar ...
. In 1936 he completed his habilitation with a thesis entitled '' Přirozený svět jako filosofický problém '' (The natural world as a philosophical problem), the first systematic phenomenological study in the Czech language, which was correspondingly influential on Czech philosophy. In 1937, Patočka took over the post of editor-in-chief of the philosophical journal '' Česká mysl '' (The Czech Mind). In 1938 he became a member of the Institut International de Philosophie.


Works

His works mainly dealt with the problem of the original, given world (''Lebenswelt''), its structure and the human position in it. He tried to develop this Husserlian concept under the influence of some core Heideggerian themes (e.g. historicity, technicity, etc.) On the other hand, he also criticised Heideggerian philosophy for not dealing sufficiently with the basic structures of being-in-the-world, which are not truth-revealing activities (this led him to an appreciation of the work of
Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German and American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theory, political theorists of the twentieth century. Her work ...
). From this standpoint he formulated his own original theory of "three movements of human existence": 1) ''receiving'', 2) ''reproduction'', 3) ''transcendence''. He also translated many of
Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...
's and Schelling's works into Czech. In his lifetime, Patočka published in Czech, German, and French. Apart from his writing on the problem of the ''Lebenswelt'', he wrote interpretations of Presocratic and classical Greek philosophy and several longer essays on the history of Greek ideas in the formation of our concept of Europe. Patočka increasingly focused on the idea of Europe during the 1970s. As he was banned from teaching (see below), he held clandestine lectures in his private apartment on the Greek thought in general and on Plato in particular in the late 70s. These clandestine lectures are collectively known as ''Plato and Europe'', and they are published under the same title in English. He also entered into discussions about modern Czech philosophy, art, history and politics. He was an esteemed scholar of Czech thinkers such as Komensky (b.1592) (also known as Comenius) and Masaryk (b.1850). In 1971, he has published a small treatise on Comenius in German titled ''Die Philosophy der Erziehung des J.A. Comenius (Comenius's Philosophy of Education).'' In 1977, his work on Masaryk culminated in 'Two Studies on Masaryk, which was initially a privately circulated typescript. Patočka's ''Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History'' is analyzed at length and with much care in
Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...
's important book ''The Gift of Death.'' Derrida was the most recent person who wrote or conversed with Patočka's thought; Paul Ricoeur and
Roman Jakobson Roman Osipovich Jakobson (, ; 18 July 1982) was a Russian linguist and literary theorist. A pioneer of structural linguistics, Jakobson was one of the most celebrated and influential linguists of the twentieth century. With Nikolai Trubetzk ...
(who respectively wrote the preface and afterword to the French edition of the ''Heretical Essays'') are two further examples. During the years 1939–1945, when the Czech universities were closed, as well as between 1951 and 1968, and from 1972 on, Patočka was banned from teaching. Only a few of his books were published and most of his work circulated only in the form of typescripts kept by students and disseminated mostly after his death. Along with other banned intellectuals he gave lectures at the so-called "Underground University", which was an informal institution that tried to offer a free, uncensored cultural education. In January 1977 he became one of the original signatories and main spokespersons for the
Charter 77 Charter 77 (''Charta 77'' in Czech language, Czech and Slovak language, Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members ...
(Charta 77) human rights movement in Czechoslovakia. For the three months after the Charter was released he was intensely active writing and speaking about the meaning of the Charter, in spite of his deteriorating health. He was also interrogated by the police regarding his involvement with the Charter movement. On March 3, 1977, he was held by the police for ten hours, who had claimed that he would be allowed to speak in his role as a Charter spokesperson with a high-ranking official (in fact, this was a pretext to keep him from attending a reception at the West German embassy). He fell ill that evening and was taken to the hospital, where his health briefly improved, enabling him to give one final interview with ''Die Zeit ''and to write one final essay entitled "What We Can Expect from Charter 77." On March 11 he relapsed, and on March 13 he died of
apoplexy Apoplexy () refers to the rupture of an internal organ and the associated symptoms. Informally or metaphorically, the term ''apoplexy'' is associated with being furious, especially as "apoplectic". Historically, it described what is now known as a ...
, at the age of 69. His brother František Patočka was a microbiologist.


List of works

* ''The Natural World as a Philosophical Problem'' řirozený svět jako filosofický problém* ''An Introduction to Husserl's Phenomenology'' �vod do Husserlovy fenomenologie* ''Aristotle, his Predecessors and his Heirs'' ristoteles, jeho předchůdci a dědicové* ''Body, Community, Language, World'' ělo, společenství, jazyk, svět* ''Negative Platonism'' egativní platónismus* ''Plato and Europe'' latón a Evropa* ''Who are the Czechs?'' o jsou Češi?* ''Care for the Soul'' éče o duši* ''Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History'' acířské eseje o filosofii dějin* ''Two Studies on Masaryk'' vě studie o Masarykovi


In English

* "Wars of the Twentieth Century and the Twentieth Century as War"
''Telos''
30 (Winter 1976–77). New York: Telos Press. * ''Jan Patocka: Philosophy and Selected Writings.'' Edited by Erazim Kohak. Chicago & London: The Chicago University Press, 1989. * ''Body, Community, Language, World''. Translated by Erazim Kohák. Edited by James Dodd. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 1998. * ''Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History''. Translated by Erazim Kohák. Edited by James Dodd. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 1996. * ''An Introduction to Husserl's Phenomenology''. Translated by Erazim Kohák. Edited by James Dodd. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 1996. * ''Plato and Europe''. Translated by Petr Lom. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002. * ''The Natural World as a Philosophical Problem.'' Translated by Erika Abrams. Edited by Ivan Chvatík and Ľubica Učnik. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2016. * ''The Selected Writings of Jan Patočka''. Edited by Erin Plunkett. London: Bloomsbury, 2022.


Media

The 2017 movie, ''The Socrates of Prague'', was filmed in Prague and debuted in Brussels. This film explores Patočka's life and work in the second half of the twentieth century in Communist Central Europe by interviewing several of his students and friends."The Socrates of Prague"


References


Further reading

* Renaud Barbaras, ''Le mouvement de l'existence. Etudes sur la phénoménologie de Jan Patočka'', Les Editions de la transparence, 2007 * Dalibor Truhlar, ''Jan Patočka. Ein Sokrates zwischen Husserl und Heidegger'', Sonderpublikation des Universitätszentrums für Friedensforschung Wien, 1996 * Erazim Kohák, ''Jan Patočka: Philosophy and Selected writings''. *
Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...
, ''The Gift of Death'' * Edward F. Findlay, ''Caring for the soul in a postmodern age : politics and phenomenology in the thought of Jan Patočka.'' Albany: SUNY Press, 2002. * Marc Crépon, ''Altérités de l'Europe.''
Jan Patočka and the European Heritage, Studia Phaenomenologica VII (2007) - Ivan Chvatik (guest editor)
* Emre Şan, ''La transcendance comme problème phénoménologique: Lecture de Merleau-Ponty et Patočka.'' Paris: Mimesis, 2012. * Francesco Tava, ''The Risk of Freedom: Ethics, Phenomenology, and Politics in Jan Patočka.'' London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2015. * Dariam Meacham & Francesco Tava (eds.), ''Thinking After Europe: Jan Patocka and Politics.'' Rowman & Littlefield International, 2016. *James Mensch. ''Patočka’s Asubjective Phenomenology: Toward a New Concept of Human Rights'' (''Orbis Phaenomenologicus Studien'', vol. 38), Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2016.    *Ivan Chvatík and Erin Plunkett (eds.), ''The Selected Writings of Jan Patočka: Care for the Soul.'' Bloomsbury, 2022.


External links


The Jan Patočka Archive in PragueJan Patočka - audio recordings
* Th
Jan Patočka Archive, Vienna, Institute of Human Sciences


a bibliography {{DEFAULTSORT:Patocka, Jan 1907 births 1977 deaths Academic staff of Charles University Charter 77 signatories 20th-century Czech philosophers People from the Kingdom of Bohemia People from Turnov Phenomenologists Recipients of the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk