Plato and Europe - Couverture souple

Patocka, Jan

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0804738017 ISBN 13 : 9780804738019

Editeur : Stanford University Press, 2002

Synopsis

The Czech philosopher Jan Patocka (1907-1977), who studied with Husserl and Heidegger, is widely recognized as the most influential thinker to come from postwar Eastern Europe. Refusing to join the Communist party after World War II, he was banned from academia and publication for the rest of his life, except for a brief time following the liberalizations of the Prague spring of 1968. Joining Vaclav Havel and Jiri Hajek as a spokesman for the Chart 77 human-rights declaration of 1977, Patocka was harassed by authorities, arrested, and finally died of a heart attack during prolonged interrogation.

Plato and Europe, arguably Patocka's most important book, consists of a series of lectures delivered in the homes of friends after his last banishment from the academy just three years before his death. Here, he presents his most mature ideas about the history of Western philosophy, arguing that the idea of the care of the soul is fundamental to the philosophical tradition beginning with the Greeks. Explaining how the care of the soul is elaborated as the problem of how human beings may make their world one of truth and justice, Patocka develops this thesis through a treatment of Plato, Democritus, and Aristotle, showing how considerations about the soul are of central importance in their writings. He demonstrates in vivid fashion how this idea forms the spiritual heritage of Europe.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Other books by Jan Patocka published in English are Body, Language, Community: Heretical Essays in the History of Philosophy, and An Introduction to Husserl's Phenomenology.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Stanford University Press
• Date d'édition: 2002
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0804738017
• ISBN 13: 9780804738019
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 252
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: Mare Nostrum Group B.V.; gpsr@mare-nostrum.co.uk; ; Doelen 72; Breda; 4831 GR; Pays-Bas