Publication details
Masarykovo a Patočkovo pojetí dějin
| Title in English | Masaryks and Patočkas Conception of History |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2007 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Jan Patočka, české dějiny a Evropa |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Philosophy and religion |
| Keywords | Czech Philosophy Czech History |
| Description | Patočka took the philosophy of history to be a serious philosophical problem. It was for him, on the one hand, the problem of the historicity of man from the objective point of view, while on the other hand it was the problem of the categorical understanding of history from the point of view of subjectivity and thought. It is necessary, he thought, to take a critical approach to classical conceptions which worked with a metaphysics of history based on the linearity of the temporal, historical continuum; based on the rationality and objectivity of the meaningfulness of historical development; based on an understanding of mankind as the subject of history; and based on the idea of historical progress. This does not necessarily mean we must completely discard these conceptions, but it does indicate a defining and restricting of their validity. Patočkas reflections on history are connected with his approach to the problem of the natural world. He is in debt here to Heideggers concept of openness which, in Patočkas view, founds the life of history and without which history could not persist. It is precisely this openness, however, that brings with it the problematicity of human historical being: the permanent possibility of the collapse of the existing meaning of life. The culmination of Patočkas reflections on history and historicity are considered to be his Heretical Essays on the Philosophy of History. |
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