Becoming Socrates: Five elements of the consecration process and the case of Jan Patočka

This article explores the phenomenon of consecration, which, so far, has been neglected by sociologists of intellectuals. Contrary to the common Bourdieusian approach to consecration, which conflates it with legitimization, consecration is conceptualized as a process of the symbolic elevation of a f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEuropean journal of social theory Vol. 23; no. 3; pp. 370 - 388
Main Author Želinský, Dominik
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.08.2020
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Ancient Greek philosophy
Anti-communism
Dissent
Legitimacy
Sacredness
dissent
cultural sociology
Czechoslovakia
intellectuals
consecration
Patočka
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Summary:This article explores the phenomenon of consecration, which, so far, has been neglected by sociologists of intellectuals. Contrary to the common Bourdieusian approach to consecration, which conflates it with legitimization, consecration is conceptualized as a process of the symbolic elevation of a figure, or an object, to the level of sacred symbols relevant to a particular community. Five analytically distinctive elements are identified that constitute the consecration process and a proposed framework is applied to disentangle the consecration of the Czech philosopher, and martyr of anti-communist dissent, Jan Patočka. In this analysis, original data are used to uncover repressed facts about the life of this intellectual icon.
ISSN:1368-4310
1461-7137
DOI:10.1177/1368431019852690