Selected Writings of Jan Patocka

Jan Patocka (1907-77) was a Czech philosopher. He specialised in phenomenonology and the philosophy of history and his works include Plato and Europe, which was a collection of his lectures and Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History.Erin Plunkett is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. She is currently researching the ontology and ethics of possibility in Kierkegaard and Jan Patocka. Her research interests are phenomenology, post-Kantian philosophy, Kierkegaard and existentialism, and the work of Stanley Cavell.Ivan Chvatík is Director of the Patocka Archive in Prague, Czech Republic, editor of the complete works of Patocka in Czech and German, and a former student of the philosopher.Alex Zucker has translated Patocka’s writings. He is an award-winning translator of Czech, and also works in editing and communications. From 2014 to 2016, he was co-chair of the Translation Committee at PEN America. He has translated Czech literature since 1987 and as August 2018, he has been a member of the Cedilla & Co. literary translators’ collective.

For Patocka, — writes Erin Plunkett, in her introduction to The Selected Writings of Jan Patocka: Care for the Soul — philosophy is always an activity oriented toward the urgent question of how to live in the world with others”. This long-awaited publication provides English readers with new, priceless materials to tackle this question. Following the evolution of Patocka’s philosophical reflections, from his early texts to his phenomenological analyses and his writings on arts and culture, this book not only reveals the philosopher's erudition, but also sheds new light on his sophisticated worldview. Particular credit is due to the work of the translator which, given the difficulty of the texts, was commendable.

• Foreword, Graham Henderson Acknowledgments Translator’s NoteTimelineIntroduction, Erin PlunkettPART ONE: Early Texts 1. A Few Remarks on the Concept of “World History” (1935) 2. The Idea of Education and its Relevance Today (1938)PART TWO: Care for the Soul 3. Limping Pilgrim Josef Capek (1950–1964) 4. On the Soul in Plato (1972) 5. Comenius and the Open Soul (1970)PART THREE: Phenomenology 6. The Natural World and Phenomenology (1967) 7. What is Phenomenology? (1975)PART FOUR: Arts and Culture 8. Time, Myth, Faith (1952) 9. Art and Time (1966) 10. Time, Eternity, and Temporality in the Work of Karel Hynek Mácha (1967) 11. On the Principle of Scientific Conscience (1968)12. The Writer’s Concern (Toward a Philosophy of Literature) (1969) 13. Ivanov (1970) 14. The Truth of Myth in Sophocles’ Theban Plays (1971) 15. On Faust: The Myth of the Pact with the Devil—Observation on the Variants of the Faust Legend (1973)PART FIVE: Philosophy of History 16. The Spiritual Foundations of Life in Our Time (1970)17. The Dangers of Technicization in Science according to E. Husserl, and the Essence of Technology as Danger according to M. Heidegger (Varna Lecture, 1973) 18. The Spiritual Person and the Intellectual (1975) 19. An Outline of History (1976)Postscript: Philosophy, Fate, and Sacrifice, Ludek SekyraList of Contributors Bibliography Index