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Life in Conversion

Publication at Third Faculty of Medicine |
2012

Abstract

In her text Life in Conversion Zuzana Svobodová demonstrates, how the Philosopher Jan Patočka reflected on the notion of "spiritual man." Spiritual life as one of radical openness, of being unanchored, uncovered, life in freedom, i.e. life in truth, manifests also in one's deeds as non-political politics and in society as solidarity of those who had been shaken, as well as solidarity and disagreement. Patočka's own concept of the specific rhythm of the spiritual setting in Czech Lands is being emphasised; it is characterised by its awareness of plurality and the ability to engage in fruitful eclecticism arising in special periods of creative tensions.

A spiritual man, as one who accepts and undergoes a disruption in their naive lives, is capable of living a life of sacrifice, as giving oneself away for truth, as a substantive vow of oneself to the truth.