Interview po čtyřiceti letech

This piece explains the circumstances which led to the making of the interview with Jan Patocka, which we publish once again before this text. It was originally published in a special issue of the 'Filosoficky casopis' to mark the philosopher's sixtieth birthday. This issue was prepared as a substitute for a collection of essays which should have been published to mark this anniversary, but which the executive organs of the Academy of Science did not permit. During the preparation of the texts for the 'Filosoficky casopis' progress was made, however, in publishing an independent book-form collection which was meant to be comprised, above all, of contributions made by Patocka's friends abroad. The manuscript of the collection was compiled during the dramatic events of 1968, and the adverse conditions that prevailed after that year made the publication of the book in Czechoslovakia, as it then was, impossible. On the request of the editor of the collection, Jan Zumr, professor Van Breda was to take care of its publication at a publishers abroad. After his premature death, this responsibility was taken over by professor Walter Biemel. And so the 'Festschrift Die Welt des Menschen - Die Welt der Philosophie' came out, after much delay, in 1976 at the Nijhoff publishing house, several months before the death of Jan Patocka.