A Dispute over the Meaning of Human History and History of Man as a Struggle for Meaning : On the first Patočka's Writings on the Issue of History and Historiography
Abstract
The paper proposes an interpretation of a set of articles published by Jan Patočka at the beginning of his philosophical career, in which he programmatically sets forth his point of view of the problem of historical knowledge and the meaning of history. Based on the reading of the texts the paper arrives at the conclusion that this collection as a whole anticipates a comprehensive philosophical concept and that by means of these texts Patočka contributed to the discussion of the day, "the dispute over the meaning of Czech history".
The paper begins by presenting the dispute as well as its contemporary context and argues that this link bears essential significance to the understanding of Patočka's texts. On this basis it then summarizes Patočka's interpretation of the different parties of the argument and the critique to which he submits them.
In the next step the paper presents Patočka's interpretation of his own conception of history. It concludes by an exposition of the basis of this conception, Patočka's concept of man.