This workshop brings together researchers, editors, and translators who work with the writings of the Czech philosopher Jan Patočka, considered one of the most influential thinkers of 20th-century Central Europe. Patočka was also the first spokesperson of the Czechoslovakian human and civil rights movement Charter 77.
The IWM has held an archive of his writings since the early 1980s. As the establishment of the Patočka Archives in Prague became possible only after 1989, the IWM archive was the first systematic and official collection of his works. Groundbreaking research and highly influential translations of Patočka’s work have been conducted at the IWM over the years.
What new topics and projects are researchers of his philosophy working on, and what problems are translators and editors facing? This meeting is an opportunity for scholars of Patočka to exchange ideas and propose new initiatives.
09:30 - 12:00
Panel I: Publications & Translations
Opening remarks by IWM Permanent Fellow Ludger Hagedorn
Overview of the Current State of Sebrané Spisy, Jan Frei (Patočka Archive/CTS Prague)
New Research on Patocka in the French Speaking Environment, Nathalie Frogneux (UC Louvain)
Update on Translations Into French, Erika Abrams (Paris)
12:00 - 13:30
Lunch break
13:30 - 15:30
Panel II: Research & Perspectives I
Patočka as a Dissident: Intellectual Background and Attempts at a New Understanding, Tomáš Hermann (Charles University/Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague)
Approaching Distance as Distance: Patočka's Remarks on the Experience of Natural Sublimity, Miloš Ševčík (Charles University, Prague)
Erotic Desire in the Discourse of Jan Patočka and Petr Rezek, Robin Pech (Technical University of Liberec)
Adorno's and Patočka's Sublation(s) of Metaphysics, Alžběta Dyčková (Prague, currently IWM visiting fellow)
15:30 - 17:00
Coffee break
17:00 - 18:30
Panel III: Research & Perspectives II
Phenomenological Reception of Art in Czechoslovakia: Patočka and His Students, Jaroslava Vydrová (Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava)
Metaphysics, or Ontology? Patočka on Jaspers, Jan Frei (Patocka Archive/ CTS, Prague)
Patočka’s Late Thought: Various Attempts at Victory Over Death, Robert Kanócz (Charles University, Prague)
