Caring for the Soul in a Postmodern Age

Edward F. Findlay

Description

In 1977 the sixty-nine-year-old Czech philosopher Jan Patocûka died from a brain hemorrhage following a series of interrogations by the Czechoslovak secret police. A student of Husserl and Heidegger, he had been arrested, along with young playwright Václav Havel, for publicly opposing the hypocrisy of the Czechoslovak Communist regime. Patocûka had dedicated himself as a philosopher to laying the groundwork of what he termed a "life in truth."

This book analyzes Patocûka's philosophy and political thought and illuminates the synthesis in his work of Socratic philosophy and its injunction to "care for the soul." In bridging the gap, not only between Husserl and Heidegger, but also between postmodern and ancient philosophy, Patocûka presents a model of democratic politics that is ethical without being metaphysical, and transcendental without being foundational.

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

2. "Concrete Humans in Their Corporeal World": An Interpretation of Husserl and Heidegger

Husserl
The Influence of Heidegger
A Phenomenology of Movement
Conclusion

3. Philosophy After the Death of Metaphysics: Patocka and Greek Thought

Plato and Europe
Caring for the Soul
Metaphysics and "Negative Platonism"
The Idea, the Good, and the Truth

4. A Philosophy of History and a Theory of Politics

The Basis of Human Historicity
A Philosophy of History
The Polis in History
Two Elements of Historical Life: Freedom and Problematicity
Philosophy of History and Politics
Europe, Science, and Metaphysics

5. Politics and Ethics in the Twentieth Century

Patocka and Politics
The Heretical Essays and the Twentieth Century
The Spiritual Person and the Polis
Ethics and Morality

6. Conclusion: Foundations and Philosophy, Politics and Postmoderism

The Problem of Meaning
Meaning, Politics, and Conflict
Conclusion
Perspective

Appendix: Patocka's Reception in the English-Language Literature

Patocka as Conflicted Humanist
Patocka as Postmodern: Antifoundationalism, Theology, and Liberalism

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie politique

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791488065
• Langue: English

Extrait

CARING FOR THE SOUL IN A POSTMODERN AGE

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CARING FOR THE SOUL IN A POSTMODERN AGE

Politics and Phenomenology in the Thought of Jan Patocˇ ka

Edward F. Findlay

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2002 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Findlay, Edward F. 1965– Caring for the soul in a postmodern age : politics and phenomenology in the thoughtofJanPatoˇcka/EdwardF.Findlay. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–7914–5485–1 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914–5486–X (pbk. : alk. paper) 1.Patoˇcka,Jan,1907–1977.I.Title.

B4805.P384.F56 2002 199´.437—dc21

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2002021241

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5.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Contents

“Concrete Humans in Their Corporeal World”: An Interpretation of Husserl and Heidegger Husserl The Influence of Heidegger A Phenomenology of Movement Conclusion

Philosophy After the Death of Metaphysics: PatoˇckaandGreekThought Plato and Europe Caring for the Soul Metaphysics and “Negative Platonism” The Idea, the Good, and the Truth

A Philosophy of History and a Theory of Politics The Basis of Human Historicity A Philosophy of History The Polis in History Two Elements of Historical Life: Freedom and Problematicity Philosophy of History and Politics Europe, Science, and Metaphysics

Politics and Ethics in the Twentieth Century PatoˇckaandPolitics TheHeretical Essaysand the Twentieth Century The Spiritual Person and the Polis Ethics and Morality

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15 16 32 42 48

51 56 61 68 74

83 86 89 99 101 107 112

121 122 133 146 151

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Contents

Conclusion: Foundations and Philosophy, Politics and Postmoderism The Problem of Meaning Meaning, Politics, and Conflict Conclusion Perspective

Appendix:Patoˇcka’sReceptionintheEnglish-Language Literature Patocˇ ka as Conflicted Humanist Patocˇ ka as Postmodern: Antifoundationalism, Theology, and Liberalism

Notes

Works Cited

Index

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Acknowledgments

his book would have been impossible without the help of a number of T individuals and organizations, and I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to them all. I am grateful, first of all, to Professors G. Ellis Sandoz and Cecil Eubanks of the Department of Political Science at Louisiana State University for their invaluable support and assistance. Intellectual encour- agement also came from Professors Robert Faulkner and Christopher Bruell of the Political Science Department at Boston College, where I bene- fited immensely from a postdoctoral fellowship. The research and writing of the book took place primarily in Prague, however, and I am indebted to the Center for Theoretical Study of Charles University and the Academy of Sciences in the Czech Republic, for hosting and facilitating my research. I would particularly like to thank Ivan Chvatík for his support and his criti- cal perspective, and Ivan Havel for permitting me to make valuable use of the facilities at CTS. I would also like to acknowledge the support of the William J. Fulbright Commission of the United States and the Fulbright Committee in Prague, which made my overseas experience possible. I want to thank, as well, the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, Austria, which has also supported my work and involved me in additional projects on the intellectual legacy of Jan Patoc ˇka. Last, but most important, I want tothankmywife,Alzˇbˇeta,andmyfather,EdwardJ.,fortheirconstant encouragement and sage advice. Without you, there is nothing. This book is, above all else, for you both.

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Introduction

heCzechphilosopherJanPatoˇckadiedinaPraguehospitalonMarch T 13, 1977, at age sixty-nine. The cause of death was a brain hemorrhage, brought on by a series of exhausting interrogations at the hands of the StB, theCzechoslovaksecretpolice.Patoˇckahadbeenunderinterrogationfor his involvement in a protest, in the name of human rights, against the deceitful rule of the communist government in Czechoslovakia. This protest took the form of a document called Charter 77. Its purpose was, in Socratic style, to inform the regime publicly of its own hypocrisy, of its failure to abide by the international Helsinki agreement to which it was a signatory. The Charter admirably accomplished this task, gaining in the process worldwide respect and launching the dissident career of the young playwright Václav Havel who, just over a decade later, would assume the presidency of the newly democratic Czechoslovak republic. Without Patoˇcka’sinvolvementasaspokesman,itisdoubtfulwhethertheCharter would have been as effective. The philosopher was explicit in stating, 1 shortly before his death, that there are things worth suffering for. In choosing to speak for the Charter, he chose to speak the truth, not merely in private, but in the public realm. In acting politically, in speaking truth- fully before his own Athenian Senate knowing full well the cost involved, Jan Patocˇka, like his model Socrates, signaled that there was an unbreakable relationship between politics and philosophy, between truth and the realm of our social being. Through his actions and words, Patocˇka declared that we should not be content with a passive awareness of this relationship; we must act according to it. In the work that follows I will pursue the nature of this relationship as it is uniquely developed in the work of the late Czech philosopher Jan Patocˇka. Jan Patocˇka spoke in one moment as a dedicated classicist, in another as a thorough postmodernist. It is conceivable, depending on the texts on which you choose to focus, to defend his work from either perspective. This is a temptation for the contemporary reader. One might read him, for example, as a moral Platonist who is enough of a contemporary to pay attention to postmodern theory or, alternately, as a committed postmodern

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Introduction

who is willing to pay lip service to the classics. Such readings should be avoided, however. With this study I will show that the voice of Jan Patocˇka is a distinctive one in contemporary philosophy, that his work deserves recognition not merely as an alternative reading of already established bodies of work, but as a unique contribution to philosophy and to political theory. ACzechinthemidstofthetwentiethcentury,Patoˇckawasliterally surrounded by German influence, in politics as well as in education. It is not surprising, therefore, that the context of his work is largely determined by German philosophy. Patocˇka naturally came under the influence of the towering philosophical figures of the time and place, Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. It is Husserl and Heidegger, above all others, who account for the specific direction of his work. Yet as a doctoral student in thetwentiesandthirties,Patoˇckawasalsowellreadintheworksof,among 2 others, Brentano, Bergson, Scheler, Koyré, Radl, and Ingarden. Although of the age when political developments forced many of his contemporaries to emigrate, Patocˇka chose to remain in Czechoslovakia for the duration of the periods of National Socialist and Communist rule. Among those Central European philosophical contemporaries who did emigrate, the names of Arendt, Strauss, and Voegelin come to mind. Patoˇckasharesagreatdealwiththesethinkersandcanbeproperlysitu- ated in the broad context of the themes that they pursue. He speaks directly, in addition, to contemporary thinkers such as Maurice Merleau- Ponty and Paul Ricoeur, as well as Richard Rorty and Jacques Derrida. Methodologically,whattiesPatoˇckatothesethinkersishisengagement with phenomenology and ontology, with philosophy pursued through direct, experiential evidence illuminated by analysis of the structures inherent to the human being. Thematically, he shares with many of these individuals an interest in the classical philosophy and politics of ancient Athens combined with a postmodern interest in the problem of meta- physics and the source, the foundation, of the shared sense of meaningful- nessthatunderliesWesterncivilization.YetPatoˇcka’sworkbelongstothe context of these other thinkers not only from the perspective of method and theme; he belongs with them as well because of the significance and relevance of what he has to say. This is a point to be established in the course of this study, however. Patocˇka’s work is inspired by the goal expressed by Edmund Husserl in his last major work, theCrisis of European Sciences. As a reaction to this “crisis,” the crisis of rationality accompanying the rise of positivism and its subordination of the question of relevance to one of method or objectivity, Husserl sought a renewal of the spirit that was at the heart of Western cul- 3 ture, the spirit of reason. As Husserl’s student during the period when this themewasformulated,Patoˇckatookonhimselfthetaskofpursuingand