PATOČKA A EURÓPA: K POJMU EURÓPY V PATOČKOVEJ FILOZOFII DEJÍN

The concept of Europe plays an important role in Patocka's writings of the 1970s. For him Europe was closely related to the Greek idea of 'taking care of the soul' and thus to the very origins of history. In the course of history, which began in ancient Greece and whose end is marked by the 1st World War, however, this idea has lost its strength. Europe in its original sense ceased to exist, being replaced by a new, Post-European period. For Patocka this means the end of history and the beginning of a non-historical era, in which we will have to cope with the European legacy in its positive as well as negative sense.