A philosopher and his history Jan Patočka’s reflections on the end of Europe and the arrival of the post-European epoch

• Published in: Thesis eleven Vol. 116; no. 1; pp. 77 - 98
• Main Author: Palous, Martin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.06.2013; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Ancient Greek Philosophy; Community; Contemporary history; Content analysis; Critical thinking; Czech Republic; Europe; Existence; Fathers; Freedom; Freedoms; Husserl, Edmund; Mankind; Modern history; Nation; Norms; Patocka, Jan; Phenomenology; Philosophers; Social change; Europe; Jan Patočka; the end of Europe; the crisis of European mankind; Contemporary history; the post-European epoch; Edmund Husserl
• ISSN: 0725-5136; 1461-7455
• DOI: 10.1177/0725513613482225

This article analyzes the lectures and texts from the last period of Czech philosopher Jan Patočka, one of the last disciples of Edmund Husserl, the founding father of phenomenology. The point of departure is Patočka’s critical reception of Husserl’s concept of the crisis of European mankind. There are, however, two other elements distinctive of Patočka’s thought essential for this interpretation. First, he was a classical philosopher aiming at Socratic ‘care for the soul’. Second, he approached the theme of universal human history from his own unique historic position: as a Czech philosopher, involved in the Socratic manner primarily with his own Czech national community, for whom the big question of the future of European mankind and its legacy at the end of its golden modern age is inseparably connected with a ‘small’ one: the question of Czech national existence – the question of the future of his nation in a changing world and the issue of its freedom.