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.

JAMES DODD is a professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College. His books include Violence and Phenomenology and Crisis and Reflection: An Essay on Husserl’s “Crisis of the European Sciences.”

“James Dodd gives us a lucid and comprehensive account of Patočka’s work, thought, and life: his idea of Europe and its classical origins; his background in phenomenology; and his role in the turbulent events of postwar Prague. For Dodd, Patočka’s thinking can be characterized as a philosophy of history rooted in a phenomenological ontology.” —David Carr, author of Experience and History: Phenomenological Perspectives on the Historical World— -

“The best synthetic account of Patočka’s thought I’ve read. Dodd reads Patočka with an empathy and generosity; he writes of him in a way absolutely devoid of hagiography (which is not so easy when dealing with a Socrates-like figure), defensiveness, and apologetics. The analysis is subtle, the writing deeply reflective and never gratuitously polemical.” —Marci Shore, author of The Taste of Ashes: The Afterlife of Totalitarianism in Eastern Europe— -