Syllabus
Weekly Schedule
Week 1
Historical and geo-political introduction
Basic introduction to the modern history of Central Europe and into the political reality of late socialism. We will focus on the specifics and ideological usage of the term Central and Eastern Europe.
Required readings:
Milan Kundera, "The Tragedy of Central Europe", NYRB 31/7, April 26, 1984
Judt, Tony (2005): "The Coming of the Cold-War" in Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, Penguin Press, pp. 129-164.
Suggested readings (this reading is not demanded, but it might help in understaning the topic and shaping the discussion):
Dahrendorf, R. (2004): Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, Transaction Publishers.
Tony Judt, "The Rediscovery of Central Europe", Deadalus, Winter 1990/119, 23-54.
Week 2
Forerunner: Czeslaw Milosz, The Captive Mind
Nobel prize winner Czeslaw Milosz wrote his penetrating analysis of totalitarian thinking already in the fifties we will analyse his thoughts on the seductive aspect of ideology, characteristics of a totalitarian mind, the role of an intellectual in authoritarian regime. A comparison with Raymond Aron’s well-known The Opium of the Intellectuals can be made.
Required readings:
Czeslaw Milosz, (1990): The Captive Mind, Vintage International, chap. 1 and 8, pp. 3-24, 191-222.
Suggested readings:
Judt, Tony (2005): "Culture Wars" in Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, Penguin Press, pp. 197-225.
Aron, R. (1957): The Opium of the Intellectuals, London: Secker & Warburg.
Week 3
Jan Patočka, Heretical Essays in the History of Philosophy
Jan Patočka is an intellectual father of Czech intellectuals dissents, influenced by Heidegger and Husserl he analysis modern society and searches for the roots of the crisis of modernity. We will examine the political aspects of his thoughts.
The lesson will finish with screening Menzel’s movie Skrivánci na niti (Larks on the string).
Required readings:
Jan Patočka (1996) "Is Technological Civilization Decadent, and Why?" in Heretical Essays in the History of Philosophy , Open Court Publishing, pp. 95-118.
Suggested readings:
Hannah Arendt, (1953) "Ideology and terror: A Novel Form of Government" in F. Flagg Taylor IV (ed). The Great Lie: Classic and Recent Appraisals of Ideology and Totalitarianism, Wilmington, Del. : ISI Books, c2011, pp. 124-147.
Tucker, A. (2000): Philosophy and politics of Czech dissidence from Patocka to Havel, University of Pittsburgh Press, chap. 1 and 2.
Week 4
Charter 77
The text of Charter 77 declaration will help us to understand the topos of dissident’s political philosophy: the illusion of the legal order on the one hand and despotism of the regime on the other. We will discuss the broader topic of relation between the law and morality as well.
Required readings:
Charter 77 declaration in Václav Havel et al. Power of Powerless, Palach Press 1985, pp. 217-221.
Václav Černý, "On the Question of Chartism" in Václav Havel et al. Power of Powerless, Palach Press 1985, pp. 125-133.
Jan Patočka, "What Charter 77 Is and What It Is Not", in H. Gordon Skilling, Charter 77 and Human Rights in Czechoslovakia, London (Allen & Unwin) 1981, str. 217-219.
Suggested readings:
Václav Benda et al., "Parallel Polis, or An Independent Society in Central and Eastern Europe: An Inquiry", in Social Research 55.1-2, 214-222.
Tucker, A. (2000): Philosophy and politics of Czech dissidence from Patocka to Havel, University of Pittsburgh Press, chap. 5.
Week 5
Václav Havel, Power of Powerless I-XV
We will read the first part of Havel’s essay concentrating on the role of ideology and truth in politics. During the class we will watch a new Czech movie Pouta (Walking Too Fast) directed by Radim Špaček which reflects the times Havel writes about.
Required readings:
Václav Havel et. al., Power of Powerless, Palach Press, pp. 23-67.
Suggested readings:
Leszek Kolakowski, "Totalitarianism & the Lie" in Commentary Magazine 1983, reprinted and re-edited
Annotation
NOTE: the course starts on 25th of February (ECES courses start a week later compared to other departments at the Faculty of Arts)
The main topic of the seminar will be political thought of dissidence and "unofficial" thinkers in Central European countries (Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia) during the seventies and eighties of 20th century. We will read and discuss texts written by Václav Havel, György Konrád, Adam Michnik and others. Since several of our primary texts are written in essayistic form far from strict academic standards, I will present them within the theoretical background of western political philosophy. Therefore we will analyse the differences between committed political writings (mostly) from behind of the Iron curtain on the one hand and parallel way of thoughts in the academic political philosophy of the West on the other hand.
We will discuss and analyse problems like moral responsibility, moral demands of resistance against authoritarian regimes, lie and nature of ideology. Since many authors criticise not only communist authoritarian state but "politics as such" (e.g. Havel or Konrád), we will try to find out whether these authors offer some kind of alternative to the usual conception of politics and liberal democracy.