Author: Jan Patočka
Publisher: Open Court Publishing
ISBN: 9780812693591
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
Body, Community, Language, World, here made available in English for the first time is Patocka's presentation of phenomenology as a living tradition - as a philosophical heritage that requires to be rethought and redirected in light of possibilities that it has itself uncovered. Jan Patocka lived for most of his adult life in Communist Czechoslovakia where he was at times banned from publishing or teaching. Mentor of Vaclav Havel, Patocka defied the regime as one of the spokespersons for Charta 77, and died in 1977, following two months of police interrogation.
Body, Community, Language, World
Author: Jan Patočka
Publisher: Open Court Publishing
ISBN: 9780812693591
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
Body, Community, Language, World, here made available in English for the first time is Patocka's presentation of phenomenology as a living tradition - as a philosophical heritage that requires to be rethought and redirected in light of possibilities that it has itself uncovered. Jan Patocka lived for most of his adult life in Communist Czechoslovakia where he was at times banned from publishing or teaching. Mentor of Vaclav Havel, Patocka defied the regime as one of the spokespersons for Charta 77, and died in 1977, following two months of police interrogation.
Publisher: Open Court Publishing
ISBN: 9780812693591
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
Body, Community, Language, World, here made available in English for the first time is Patocka's presentation of phenomenology as a living tradition - as a philosophical heritage that requires to be rethought and redirected in light of possibilities that it has itself uncovered. Jan Patocka lived for most of his adult life in Communist Czechoslovakia where he was at times banned from publishing or teaching. Mentor of Vaclav Havel, Patocka defied the regime as one of the spokespersons for Charta 77, and died in 1977, following two months of police interrogation.
In Marx's Shadow
Author: Costica Bradatan
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739136267
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
Despite its key role in the intellectual shaping of state socialism, Communist ideas are often dismissed as mere propaganda or as a rhetorical exercise aimed at advancing socialist intellectuals on their way to power. By drawing attention to unknown and unexplored areas, trends and ways of thinking under socialism, the volume examines Eastern Europe and Russian histories of intellectual movements inspired - negatively as well as positively - by Communist arguments and dogmas. Through an interdisciplinary dialogue, the collection demonstrates how various bodies of theoretical knowledge (philosophical, social, political, aesthetic, even theological) were used not only to justify dominant political views, but also to frame oppositional and nonofficial discourses and practices. The examination of the underlying structures of Communism as an intellectual project provides convincing evidence for questioning a dominant approach that routinely frames the post-Communist intellectual development as a 'revival' or, at least, as a 'return' of the repressed intellectual traditions. As the book shows, the logic of a radical break, suggested by this approach, is in contradiction with historical evidence: a significant number of philosophical, theoretical and ideological debates in post-Communist world are in fact the logical continuation of intellectual conversations and confrontations initiated long before 1989.
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739136267
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
Despite its key role in the intellectual shaping of state socialism, Communist ideas are often dismissed as mere propaganda or as a rhetorical exercise aimed at advancing socialist intellectuals on their way to power. By drawing attention to unknown and unexplored areas, trends and ways of thinking under socialism, the volume examines Eastern Europe and Russian histories of intellectual movements inspired - negatively as well as positively - by Communist arguments and dogmas. Through an interdisciplinary dialogue, the collection demonstrates how various bodies of theoretical knowledge (philosophical, social, political, aesthetic, even theological) were used not only to justify dominant political views, but also to frame oppositional and nonofficial discourses and practices. The examination of the underlying structures of Communism as an intellectual project provides convincing evidence for questioning a dominant approach that routinely frames the post-Communist intellectual development as a 'revival' or, at least, as a 'return' of the repressed intellectual traditions. As the book shows, the logic of a radical break, suggested by this approach, is in contradiction with historical evidence: a significant number of philosophical, theoretical and ideological debates in post-Communist world are in fact the logical continuation of intellectual conversations and confrontations initiated long before 1989.
Caring for the Soul in a Postmodern Age
Author: Edward F. Findlay
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791488063
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 267
Book Description
In 1977 the sixty-nine-year-old Czech philosopher Jan Patočka died from a brain hemorrhage following a series of interrogations by the Czechoslovak secret police. A student of Husserl and Heidegger, he had been arrested, along with young playwright Václav Havel, for publicly opposing the hypocrisy of the Czechoslovak Communist regime. Patočka had dedicated himself as a philosopher to laying the groundwork of what he termed a "life in truth." This book analyzes Patočka's philosophy and political thought and illuminates the synthesis in his work of Socratic philosophy and its injunction to "care for the soul." In bridging the gap, not only between Husserl and Heidegger, but also between postmodern and ancient philosophy, Patočka presents a model of democratic politics that is ethical without being metaphysical, and transcendental without being foundational.
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791488063
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 267
Book Description
In 1977 the sixty-nine-year-old Czech philosopher Jan Patočka died from a brain hemorrhage following a series of interrogations by the Czechoslovak secret police. A student of Husserl and Heidegger, he had been arrested, along with young playwright Václav Havel, for publicly opposing the hypocrisy of the Czechoslovak Communist regime. Patočka had dedicated himself as a philosopher to laying the groundwork of what he termed a "life in truth." This book analyzes Patočka's philosophy and political thought and illuminates the synthesis in his work of Socratic philosophy and its injunction to "care for the soul." In bridging the gap, not only between Husserl and Heidegger, but also between postmodern and ancient philosophy, Patočka presents a model of democratic politics that is ethical without being metaphysical, and transcendental without being foundational.
The Self and the Sonnet
Author: Rajan Barrett
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443825417
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 460
Book Description
The Self and the Sonnet is an interdisciplinary study which considers the sonnet, a near eight hundred year old form, and looks at the historical meanderings and the popularity of the form among cultures that are far removed from the location of its origin in Italy. The book tracks the notion of the self from its Platonic beginnings to the Postmodern, using insights from Charles Taylor, Brian Morris and Calvin O. Schrag so as to work out a model of the self. Jan Patočka’s phenomenological notions of the self and Chaos Theory are important cohesive elements in the composition of this model. A limit point in Mathematics is a point that is not in the set around which all the points cluster. The book looks at the self from the limit points of the body, mind, world and language. It analyzes sonnets which predominantly show a tendency to one of these limit points. However, it keeps in mind the other limit points as possibilities of a comprehensive analysis. The motivation for this body of research comes primarily from the notion of the sonnet being a form that initially exists along with the epic as canonical writers of literary epics also write sonnets. The historic and narrative moment of self in sonnet form calls for a questioning of both the self and the sonnet. The book tries to address the questions: ‘What changes in the notion of self prompt the origin and persistence of the sonnet across cultures?’ and ‘Why and how is this form compatible with a self that is postmodern and global?’ The Anglo-American sonnet, for the most, is addressed but cultures and their attendant forms are also addressed when considering the sonnet. The Arabic zajal, the Persian ghazal, the Chinese sonnet and the Korean Sijo-sonnet are forms that are touched upon along with the Indian postcolonial versions like the forms of the sonnet in Modern Indian Languages such as Bangla, Gujarati and Marathi.
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443825417
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 460
Book Description
The Self and the Sonnet is an interdisciplinary study which considers the sonnet, a near eight hundred year old form, and looks at the historical meanderings and the popularity of the form among cultures that are far removed from the location of its origin in Italy. The book tracks the notion of the self from its Platonic beginnings to the Postmodern, using insights from Charles Taylor, Brian Morris and Calvin O. Schrag so as to work out a model of the self. Jan Patočka’s phenomenological notions of the self and Chaos Theory are important cohesive elements in the composition of this model. A limit point in Mathematics is a point that is not in the set around which all the points cluster. The book looks at the self from the limit points of the body, mind, world and language. It analyzes sonnets which predominantly show a tendency to one of these limit points. However, it keeps in mind the other limit points as possibilities of a comprehensive analysis. The motivation for this body of research comes primarily from the notion of the sonnet being a form that initially exists along with the epic as canonical writers of literary epics also write sonnets. The historic and narrative moment of self in sonnet form calls for a questioning of both the self and the sonnet. The book tries to address the questions: ‘What changes in the notion of self prompt the origin and persistence of the sonnet across cultures?’ and ‘Why and how is this form compatible with a self that is postmodern and global?’ The Anglo-American sonnet, for the most, is addressed but cultures and their attendant forms are also addressed when considering the sonnet. The Arabic zajal, the Persian ghazal, the Chinese sonnet and the Korean Sijo-sonnet are forms that are touched upon along with the Indian postcolonial versions like the forms of the sonnet in Modern Indian Languages such as Bangla, Gujarati and Marathi.
The Heresies of Jan Patocka
Author: James Dodd
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 081014588X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 476
Book Description
A nuanced reflection on the meaning and resonance of Patočka’s philosophy Foregrounding the turbulent political and intellectual scene in Czechoslovakia following the Prague Spring in 1968, James Dodd explores the unity of philosophy, history, and politics in Jan Patočka’s life and legacy. Dodd presents Patočka as an essential philosopher of modern concepts—such as freedom, subjectivity, and history—and also as an interpreter of prominent thinkers such as Husserl and Heidegger. Dodd outlines the phenomenology that Patočka, as a late pupil of Husserl and Heidegger, crafted in response to the classical model before turning to his philosophy of history, which was oriented around the problem of Europe and the care for the soul. Finally, Dodd examines Patočka’s role as a dissident intellectual and one of the principal voices of the Charter 77 human rights movement until his death in March 1977. By situating Patočka’s thought in relation to classical phenomenology and to the political and historical conditions of Central Europe, Dodd illuminates the enduring impact of this key thinker of the twentieth century.
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 081014588X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 476
Book Description
A nuanced reflection on the meaning and resonance of Patočka’s philosophy Foregrounding the turbulent political and intellectual scene in Czechoslovakia following the Prague Spring in 1968, James Dodd explores the unity of philosophy, history, and politics in Jan Patočka’s life and legacy. Dodd presents Patočka as an essential philosopher of modern concepts—such as freedom, subjectivity, and history—and also as an interpreter of prominent thinkers such as Husserl and Heidegger. Dodd outlines the phenomenology that Patočka, as a late pupil of Husserl and Heidegger, crafted in response to the classical model before turning to his philosophy of history, which was oriented around the problem of Europe and the care for the soul. Finally, Dodd examines Patočka’s role as a dissident intellectual and one of the principal voices of the Charter 77 human rights movement until his death in March 1977. By situating Patočka’s thought in relation to classical phenomenology and to the political and historical conditions of Central Europe, Dodd illuminates the enduring impact of this key thinker of the twentieth century.
Traversing
Author: Susanna Trnka
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501749234
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 331
Book Description
Traversing is about our ways of seeing, experiencing, and moving through the world and how they shape the kinds of people we become. Drawing from concepts developed by two phenomenological philosophers, Martin Heidegger and Jan Patočka, and putting them in conversation with ethnographic analysis of the lives of contemporary Czechs, Susanna Trnka examines how embodiment is crucial for understanding our being-in-the-world. In particular, Traversing scrutinizes three kinds of movements we make as embodied actors in the world: how we move through time and space, be it by walking along city streets, gliding across the dance floor, or clicking our way through digital landscapes; how we move toward and away from one another, as erotic partners, family members, or fearful, ethnic "others"; and how we move toward ourselves and the earth we live on. Above all, Traversing focuses on tracing the ways in which the body and motion are fundamental to our lived experience of the world, so we can develop a better understanding of the empirical details of Czech society and what they can reveal to us about the human condition.
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501749234
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 331
Book Description
Traversing is about our ways of seeing, experiencing, and moving through the world and how they shape the kinds of people we become. Drawing from concepts developed by two phenomenological philosophers, Martin Heidegger and Jan Patočka, and putting them in conversation with ethnographic analysis of the lives of contemporary Czechs, Susanna Trnka examines how embodiment is crucial for understanding our being-in-the-world. In particular, Traversing scrutinizes three kinds of movements we make as embodied actors in the world: how we move through time and space, be it by walking along city streets, gliding across the dance floor, or clicking our way through digital landscapes; how we move toward and away from one another, as erotic partners, family members, or fearful, ethnic "others"; and how we move toward ourselves and the earth we live on. Above all, Traversing focuses on tracing the ways in which the body and motion are fundamental to our lived experience of the world, so we can develop a better understanding of the empirical details of Czech society and what they can reveal to us about the human condition.
George Mackay Brown and the Philosophy of Community
Author: Timothy C Baker
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748640932
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 192
Book Description
In this book Timothy C. Baker situates George Mackay Brown's work within a broad literary and philosophical context to articulate how his novels engage with the question of community.
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748640932
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 192
Book Description
In this book Timothy C. Baker situates George Mackay Brown's work within a broad literary and philosophical context to articulate how his novels engage with the question of community.
Confronting Totalitarian Minds: Jan Patočka on Politics and Dissidence
Author: Aspen E. Brinton
Publisher: Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press
ISBN: 8024645378
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
The Czech philosopher Jan Patocka not only witnessed some of the most turbulent politics of twentieth-century Central Europe, but shaped his philosophy in response to that tumult. One of the last students of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, he inspired Václav Havel and other dissidents who confronted the Communist regime before 1989, as well as being actively involved in authoring and enacting Charter 77. He died in 1977 from medical complications resulting from interrogations of the secret police. Confronting Totalitarian Minds examines his legacy along with several contemporary applications of his ideas about dissidence, solidarity, and the human being’s existential confrontation with unjust politics. Expanding the current possibilities of comparative political theory, the author puts Patocka’s ideas about dissidence, citizen mobilization, and civic responsibility into conversation with notable world historical figures like Mahatma Gandhi, Vaclav Havel, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and other contemporary activists. In adding a fresh voice to contemporary conversations on transcending injustice, Confronting Totalitarian Minds seeks to educate a wider audience about this philosopher’s continued relevance to political dissidents across the world.
Publisher: Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press
ISBN: 8024645378
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
The Czech philosopher Jan Patocka not only witnessed some of the most turbulent politics of twentieth-century Central Europe, but shaped his philosophy in response to that tumult. One of the last students of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, he inspired Václav Havel and other dissidents who confronted the Communist regime before 1989, as well as being actively involved in authoring and enacting Charter 77. He died in 1977 from medical complications resulting from interrogations of the secret police. Confronting Totalitarian Minds examines his legacy along with several contemporary applications of his ideas about dissidence, solidarity, and the human being’s existential confrontation with unjust politics. Expanding the current possibilities of comparative political theory, the author puts Patocka’s ideas about dissidence, citizen mobilization, and civic responsibility into conversation with notable world historical figures like Mahatma Gandhi, Vaclav Havel, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and other contemporary activists. In adding a fresh voice to contemporary conversations on transcending injustice, Confronting Totalitarian Minds seeks to educate a wider audience about this philosopher’s continued relevance to political dissidents across the world.
Thinking After Europe
Author: Francesco Tava
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1783486864
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 411
Book Description
Jan Patočka, perhaps more so than any other philosopher in the twentieth century, managed to combine intense philosophical insight with a farsighted analysis of the idea and challenges facing Europe as a historical, cultural and political signifier. As a political dissident in communist Czechoslovakia he also became a moral and political inspiration to a generation of Czechs, including Václav Havel. He accomplished this in a time of intense political repression when not even the hint of a unified Europe seemed visible by showing in exemplary fashion how concrete thought can be without renouncing in any way its depth. Europe as an idea and a political project is a central issue in contemporary political theory. Patočka’s political thought offers many original insights into questions surrounding the European project. Here, for the first time, a group of leading scholars from different disciplines gathers together to discuss the specific political impact of Patočka’s philosophy and its lasting significance.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1783486864
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 411
Book Description
Jan Patočka, perhaps more so than any other philosopher in the twentieth century, managed to combine intense philosophical insight with a farsighted analysis of the idea and challenges facing Europe as a historical, cultural and political signifier. As a political dissident in communist Czechoslovakia he also became a moral and political inspiration to a generation of Czechs, including Václav Havel. He accomplished this in a time of intense political repression when not even the hint of a unified Europe seemed visible by showing in exemplary fashion how concrete thought can be without renouncing in any way its depth. Europe as an idea and a political project is a central issue in contemporary political theory. Patočka’s political thought offers many original insights into questions surrounding the European project. Here, for the first time, a group of leading scholars from different disciplines gathers together to discuss the specific political impact of Patočka’s philosophy and its lasting significance.
The Far Reaches
Author: Michael D Gubser
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804792607
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 359
Book Description
“By restoring morality to phenomenology, and phenomenology to East European politics, Gubser has rewritten the intellectual history of the twentieth century.” —Samuel Moyn, author of Liberalism Against Itself When future historians chronicle the twentieth century, they will see phenomenology as one of the preeminent social and ethical philosophies of its age. The phenomenological movement not only produced systematic reflection on common moral concerns such as distinguishing right from wrong and explaining the status of values; it also called on philosophy to renew European societies facing crisis, an aim that inspired thinkers in interwar Europe as well as later communist bloc dissidents. Despite this legacy, phenomenology continues to be largely discounted as esoteric and solipsistic, the last gasp of a Cartesian dream to base knowledge on the isolated rational mind. Intellectual histories tend to cite Husserl’s epistemological influence on philosophies like existentialism and deconstruction without considering his social or ethical imprint. And while a few recent scholars have begun to note phenomenology’s wider ethical resonance, especially in French social thought, its image as stubbornly academic continues to hold sway. The Far Reaches challenges that image by tracing the first history of phenomenological ethics and social thought in Central Europe, from its founders Franz Brentano and Edmund Husserl through its reception in East Central Europe by dissident thinkers such as Jan Patocka, Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), and Václav Havel. “In his fascinating and elegantly written book, Michael Gubser leads us away from intellectual history’s traditional stomping grounds in France, Germany, and the United States, and focuses on the understudied Eastern bloc.” —Edward Baring, Modern Intellectual History
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804792607
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 359
Book Description
“By restoring morality to phenomenology, and phenomenology to East European politics, Gubser has rewritten the intellectual history of the twentieth century.” —Samuel Moyn, author of Liberalism Against Itself When future historians chronicle the twentieth century, they will see phenomenology as one of the preeminent social and ethical philosophies of its age. The phenomenological movement not only produced systematic reflection on common moral concerns such as distinguishing right from wrong and explaining the status of values; it also called on philosophy to renew European societies facing crisis, an aim that inspired thinkers in interwar Europe as well as later communist bloc dissidents. Despite this legacy, phenomenology continues to be largely discounted as esoteric and solipsistic, the last gasp of a Cartesian dream to base knowledge on the isolated rational mind. Intellectual histories tend to cite Husserl’s epistemological influence on philosophies like existentialism and deconstruction without considering his social or ethical imprint. And while a few recent scholars have begun to note phenomenology’s wider ethical resonance, especially in French social thought, its image as stubbornly academic continues to hold sway. The Far Reaches challenges that image by tracing the first history of phenomenological ethics and social thought in Central Europe, from its founders Franz Brentano and Edmund Husserl through its reception in East Central Europe by dissident thinkers such as Jan Patocka, Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), and Václav Havel. “In his fascinating and elegantly written book, Michael Gubser leads us away from intellectual history’s traditional stomping grounds in France, Germany, and the United States, and focuses on the understudied Eastern bloc.” —Edward Baring, Modern Intellectual History