HERETICAL ESSAYS AND HEIDEGGER’S SHADOW

Abstract

Patočka’s Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History are a unique attempt at writing a philosophical history in the form of a Grand Narrative – an otherwise notorious form for the taste of the contemporary reader. Still, in contrast to the bravery that the Czech philosopher showed by undertaking the task to contemplate history in its entirety, the execution of this task was followed by difficulties, the source of which we ought to seek in his reception of his own philosophical exemplars. The greatest problem with Patočka’s approach arises with his reliance on Heideggerian understanding of historicity as an ontological structure that takes precedence over any particular thematization of history itself, and which is the grounds for possibility of such a history in the first place. Inspired by that, Patočka’s reflections can sometimes lead to problematic conclusions about history itself being a specific occurrence, the reason of which should be sought on the level of specifically understood historicity as an existential instance that is to be the focus of philosophical thinking of history. This paper is an attempt at expounding some basic problems that emerge from such an approach.