Jan Patočka: asubjective phenomenology and heretic philosophy of the history

Abstract

Our aim is to present the thought of Jan Patočka and the philosophical debates stimulated by his positions. The core of his thought is, on our opinion, human existence as essentially transcending the given and disclosing its essential freedom. Patočka’s phenomenological research seeks an “asubjective phenomenology” and a conceptualization of existence as movement (diversified in the three movements of human existence). In Philosophy of History, Patočka focuses on the origins of Europe and at the essential transformations which have led to an absolute dominion of technical reason. In this situation, only sacrifice seems to offer a possibility to counter the absoluteness of technical civilisation. Finally, we confront Patočka and Lévinas, and we show that a fundamental debate between ontological pluralism and ontological monism is stirred. This debate is of essential importance in the fields of Ethics and Politics. Patočka’s thought is, then, an example of how phenomenology is still timely.