The hidden teacher: on Patočka’s impact on today’s Czech philosophy

Abstract

This article aims to elucidate Patocka’s impact on contemporary Czech philosophy. As a preliminary, it presents Patocka’s general conception of the possible impact of philosophy as such. It seems that for Patocka, the clarifying function of philosophy was the most relevant, much more than its possible capacity to stimulate objective or social processes. It then explains what impact Patocka himself expected from his own activity as a philosopher. Here we can see that his main concern was to pass on the great philosophical tradition neglected by Czech intellectuals, primarily ancient philosophy and German Idealism. Finally, it sketches the impact of Patocka’s writings and lectures that can actually be seen today in Czech philosophy—in the study of ancient and Classical German Philosophy, in new philosophical conceptions inspired by him, in phenomenology, and in debates about modern Czech history.