Jan Patocka, 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 Vaclav 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. Patocka'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 Patocka's philosophy and its lasting significance.
Editors' Introduction / Acknowledgements / Part I: Intellectuals and Opposition 1. Translators' Preface / 2. Intellectuals and Opposition, Jan Patocka / 3. Appendix / Part II: Dissidence and Political Commitment / 4. Jan Patocka and the Possibility of a Spiritual Politics, Ivan Chvatik / 5. Resisting Fear: On Dissent and the Solidarity of the Shaken in Contemporary European and Global Society, Jiri Priban / 6. The Soul as Site of Dissidence, Simona Forti / Part III: Political Phenomenology / 7. Polemos in Jan Patocka's Political Thought, James Dodd / 8. Supercivilisation and Biologism, Darian Meacham / 9. Caring for the Asubjective Soul, James Mensch / Part IV: Philosophy of History / 10. He Who Saw the Deep: The Epic of Gilgamesh in Patocka's Philosophy of History, Nicolas De Warren / 11. The Dark Night of the Care for the Soul - Politics and Despair in Jan Patocka's Sixth Heretical Essay, Daniel Leufer / 12. The Heresy of History: Patocka's Reflections on Marx and Marxism, Francesco Tava / 13. The End of History and After: Rethinking Kojeve and Patocka on the Idea of Post-History, Riccardo Paparusso / Part V: Rethinking the Community / 14. On the Significance of the Ancient Greek Polis for Patocka and Castoriadis: Philosophy, Politics, History, Suzi Adams / 15. Patocka's Radical and Agonistic Politics, Tamara Caraus / 16. Patocka's Figures of Political Community, Marion Bernard / 17. This is a Mathematical Certainty: Patoc ka and the Neoliberal Ideology, Lubica Ucnik / Part VI: Europe and Post-Europe / 18. Europe, Post-Europe and Eurocentrism, Karel Novotny / 19. Europe and the Oblivion of the World: From Husserl to Patocka, Ovidiu Stanciu / 20. Europe's Twentieth Century: History of Wars and War as History, Ludger Hagedorn / Bibliography / Index
