Jan Patočka (1907-1977) is the leading Czech philosopher of the 20th century. He studied phenomenology with Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. His brief teaching career at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in Prague was repeatedly terminated by the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia. Before his death, he became one of the spokesmen of the Charter 77 dissident movement.

Spanning his entire life, from one of his first articles to one of his last, this selection of texts by Jan Patočka illustrates his thoughts on the appropriate manner of being and engagement in the world. These texts examine the role of the philosopher in the world, how the world constrains us through ideology, and how freedom is possible through the recognition of our human condition in the problematicity of the world. These views outline Patočka’s “political” philosophy and how his later engagement in the political sphere with Charter 77 corresponds with the ideas he maintained throughout his whole life.

Eric Manton (* 1971) - translator - studied political philosophy in Ohio Wesleyan University and Charles University in Prague, and international human rights law in the University of Essex. He wrote his master’s thesis on “The Political Philosophy of Jan Patočka”. He has worked for international organizations in the Balkans and currently works at the Jan Patočka Archive at the Center for Theoretical Study in Prague.