Caring for the Soul in a Postmodern Age: Politics and Phenomenology in the Thought of Jan Patočka

by Edward F. Findlay

The first full exploration of the political thought of Jan Patocka, student of Husserl and Heidegger and mentor of Vaclav Havel.

Genres: Philosophy

259 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2002

Reviews

[Adrian Colesberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading Community Body Language World by [Author: Jan Patocka], but had to take a detour into Kant and then into this before returning to it. The Kant really helped set me up for understanding Patocka. And this book is a very helpful guide to his thought. The further I got into it, the more I liked it. In the introduction to Time Travels, Elizabeth Grosz says something about reading authors for what you can learn from them, not reading them and immediately starting to criticize and tear down the arguments. That sounds kind of Pollyanna, but it's more, I think, for the benefit of the reader than a kindness done to the author.
Only by doing your best to make the author's case in your own mind can you really benefit from that program of thought, and Findlay constructs the strongest possible case for the reading of Patochka: His efforts to posit a foundation in the problematizing movement of life. Findlay makes Patochka seem almost Machiavellian, as in the Discourses, in his advocacy of conflict as a naturally more authentic reflection of the problematic world that we live in. Patochka makes philosophy responsible for continuing to problematize the world and politics responsible for translating that philosophy into pragmatic solutions to our everyday living.
Findlay has translated certain half-finished manuscripts not available in English and really gone the extra mile to make a case for a coherent philosophical program. This defense and presentation is richly deserved by Patochka, who gets treated a bit dismissively by Derrida, in Gift of Death, and even by Patochka's principle translator, Kohac.

[mono]

if it needs Kant to understand I don't think this will happen.

[Daniel Castillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maravilla. Lo detengo tras terminar las tres primeras partes y me dejo la política para otro momento. Ha sido un descubrimiento que mas adelante re-leeré y continuaré. Muy bonito trabajo el de Jan Patocka con Socrates, Husserl y Heidegger; y maravilla de Eduard F Findlay por analizarlo.
Cuidar del alma desde la acción apoyada en el conocimiento