Jan Patocka´s Contribution to a Genealogy of Modernity

Research project P 13882 Jan Patocka`s Contribution to a Genealogy of Modernity Krzysztof MICHALSKI 11.10.1999 The work of the Czech philosopher Jan Patocka (1907 - 77) has found an international reception in recent years, and has thereby achieved the universal-European dimension which had always been one of its primary intentions. He is recognized today as one of the most original thinkers of the "second generation" of phenomenologists, following Husserl and Heidegger. Less known is a series of writings which are not strictly phenomenological in character dealing with the History of Ideas. These works which have not received the attention they deserve, are mainly studies devoted to ancient philosophy, to the Bohemian Renaissance thinker Jan Amos Comenius, the tradition of German Idealism, as well as the critical encounter with modern science. The research project, "The Other Way Into Modernity" will contribute to reconstructing Patocka`s research on and criticism of the genealogy of modern times. The project will also work out his central idea (often hinted at but never made explicit) that there is a "parallel path" in modern Western history, which has never been discontinued, but whose virulence remains preserved. The end of the linear model of history now opens a view on the plurality of reason, the breaches, non-contemporaneity, and ramifications in its genealogy. Also in a literal geographic sense: Patocka`s investigations appear to indicate that precisely the Central European space has generated interesting developments that have hitherto attracted too little attention. One exemplary figure is Comenius, who in Patocka`s eyes achieved a breakthrough as radical as that of Decartes, but from an entirely different perspective. Faced with the decision between the tradition and the newly emerging modern sciences, Comenius chose the latter, although at the same time he criticized it from the standpoint of his "Pansophie." Thus he is simultaneously a co-founder (along with Descartes) and a critic of modernity. Patocka`s point of departure for a new understanding of modernity is these two key figures, Comenius and Descartes and their alternative conceptions of modernity. One of the main goals of the project is the necessary research into the above-mentioned context, as well as the composition and editing of the relevant texts and their publication within the framework of the Czech critical edition of Patocka`s complete works. In addition a German language edition of selected works is also planned, which could then serve as a basis for French and English versions. The research results will be published.