The Hidden Teacher: on Patočka’s Impact on Today’s Czech Philosophy

0548346 - FLÚ 2022 RIV NL eng J - Journal Article
Frei, Jan
The Hidden Teacher: on Patočka’s Impact on Today’s Czech Philosophy.
Studies in East European Thought. Roč. 73, č. 3 (2021), s. 239-248. ISSN 0925-9392. E-ISSN 1573-0948
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA20-26526S
Institutional support: RVO:67985955
Keywords : Social function of philosophy * Teaching philosophy * Philosophical tradition * History of philosophy * Modern Czech history * Jan Patočka
OECD category: Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology
Impact factor: 0.250, year: 2021
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-020-09404-z

This article aims to elucidate Patočka’s impact on contemporary Czech philosophy. As a preliminary, it presents Patočka’s general conception of the possible impact of philosophy as such. It seems that for Patočka, the clarifying function of philosophy was the most relevant, much more than its possible capacity to stimulate objective or social processes. It then explains what impact Patočka himself expected from his own activity as a philosopher. Here we can see that his main concern was to pass on the great philosophical tradition neglected by Czech intellectuals, primarily ancient philosophy and German Idealism. Finally, it sketches the impact of Patočka’s writings and lectures that can actually be seen today in Czech philosophy - in the study of ancient and Classical German Philosophy, in new philosophical conceptions inspired by him, in phenomenology, and in debates about modern Czech history.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0324409