Francouzský svět Jana Patočky
The French world of Jan Patočka

Author(s): Lucie Divišová
Subject(s): Contemporary Philosophy, Existentialism, Phenomenology
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: philosophers of Central Europe and France; phenomenology and existentialism; dissent; solidarity of the shaken;
Summary/Abstract: Jan Patočka’s French experience dates back to his youth; he studied at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University (among other fields also Romance Studies), in 1928 he went to Paris where he attended lectures of E. Husserl at the Sorbonne. Already in the 30’s, Patočka expressed his views on Descartes’ thoughts in the epilogue to Discourse on the Method. Jan Patočka excelled in penetrating thinking as well as in the ability to critically reflect French existentialism at the time of its emergence and penetration to the Czech lands in the 60s of the 20th century. In fact, the ideas of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and J.–P. Sartre significantly influenced Patočka’s concept of asubjective phenomenology. But how do the French perceive Jan Patočka? Is their attempt to rank Patočka among other Eastern European philosophers like the Pole Czeslaw Milosz or the Hungarian István Bibó – influenced sometimes by too uncritical viewpoint of and admiration for so-called dissent? The aim of this paper is a small insight into the French intellectual world. The intention is to map which Patočka’s topics are beneficial for French thinking in the (not just contemporary) “European community of the shaken [in solidarity]” (Laignel-Lavastine, 2010, p. 237).

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