Suchergebnisse

This article analyzes the lectures and texts from the last period of Czech philosopher Jan Patocka, one of the last disciples of Edmund Husserl, the founding father of phenomenology. The point of departure is Patocka's critical reception of Husserl's concept of the crisis of European mankind. There are, however, two other elements distinctive of Patocka's thought essential for this interpretation. First, he was a classical philosopher aiming at Socratic 'care for the soul'. Second, he approached the theme of universal human history from his own unique historic position: as a Czech philosopher, involved in the Socratic manner primarily with his own Czech national community, for whom the big question of the future of European mankind and its legacy at the end of its golden modern age is inseparably connected with a 'small' one: the question of Czech national existence -- the question of the future of his nation in a changing world and the issue of its freedom. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications and Thesis Eleven Co-op Ltd, copyright holder.]

The tenth anniversary of the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe is the basis for this text which reflects upon the past ten years and what lies ahead for the future. An international group of academics and public intellectuals, including former dissidents and active politicians, engage in an exchange on the antecedents, causes, contexts, meanings and legacies of the 1989 revolutions. The contributors address various issues including liberal democracy and its enemies; modernity and discontent; economic reforms and their social impact; ethnicity; nationalism and religion; geopolitics; electoral systems and political power; European integration; and the demise of Yugoslavia