The Risk of Freedom

Jan Patocka has been recognized throughout the world for his dissidence and sacrifice as the spokesperson of Charta 77. Yet rarely has the profound rootedness of his political actions in his philosophy been articulated as lucidly as in this book. This is a welcome translation of a significant work on an uncommon and complex thinker of the contemporary human condition. -- James Dodd, Associate Professor of Philosophy, New School for Social Research, New York
Francesco Tava offers a strikingly fresh perspective on the thought of Czech philosopher and dissident, Jan Patocka. No longer can phenomenology be understood as unworldy or disengaged, Tava describes a style of thinking that places ethics and politics at the very centre of what it means to be a human subject. Freedom is a risk that we take as worldly, corporeal beings; and it is only in taking this risk that we become truly human. This is important reading for anyone interested in the development of central European philosophy and phenomenology. -- Darian Meacham, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of the West of England
This is an insightful book on the complex philosophical and political problem of freedom in the writings of Jan Patočka. Although Patočka’s thinking is often associated with the question of freedom, Tava’s book is the first study that engages the broad spectrum of Patočka’s writings against the backdrop of the phenomenological philosophies of Husserl and Heidegger and Czech writers and thinkers such as Hrabal and Kosík. The book concludes with a significant contribution to the intellectual history of Eastern Europe and a rounded assessment of the political impact of this central figure in 20th-century phenomenological thought.  -- Nicolas de Warren, Professor of Philosophy, Husserl Archives, KU Leuven