The Philosophy And Politics Of Czech Dissidence From Patocka To Havel

Author : Aviezer Tucker
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Pre
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : History
ISBN : 9780822972136

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The Philosophy and Politics of Czech Dissidence from Patocka to Havel by Aviezer Tucker Pdf

A critical study of the philosophy and political practice of the Czech dissident movement Charter 77. Aviezer Tucker examines how the political philosophy of Jan Patocka (1907-1977), founder of Charter 77, influenced the thinking and political leadership of Vaclav Havel as dissident and president. Presents the first serious treatment of Havel as philosopher and Patocka as a political thinker. Through the Charter 77 dissident movement in Czechoslovakia, opponents of communism based their civil struggle for human rights on philosophic foundations, and members of the Charter 77 later led the Velvet Revolution. After Patocka's self-sacrifice in 1977, Vaclav Havel emerged a strong philosophical and political force, and he continued to apply Patocka's philosophy in order to understand the human condition under late communism and the meaning of dissidence. However, the political/philosophical orientation of the Charter 77 movement failed to provide President Havel with an adequate basis for comprehending and responding to the extraordinary political and economic problems of the postcommunist period. In his discussion of Havel's presidency and the eventual corruption of the Velvet Revolution, Tucker demonstrates that the weaknesses in Charter 77 member's understanding of modernity, which did not matter while they were dissidents, seriously harmed their ability to function in a modern democratic system. Within this context, Tucker also examines Havel's recent attempt to topple the democratic but corrupt government in 1997-1998. The Philosophy and Politics of Czech Dissidence from Patocka to Havel will be of interest to students of philosophy and politics, scholars and students of Slavic studies, and historians, as well as anyone fascinated by the nature of dissidence.

Author : Aspen Brinton
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 299 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Dissenters
ISBN : 802464519X

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Confronting Totalitarian Minds by Aspen Brinton Pdf

"The Czech philosopher Jan Patocka not only witnessed some of the most turbulent politics of twentieth-century Central Europe, but shaped his philosophy in response to that tumult. One of the last students of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, he inspired Václav Havel and other dissidents who confronted the Communist regime before 1989, as well as being actively involved in authoring and enacting Charter 77. He died in 1977 from medical complications resulting from interrogations of the secret police. Confronting Totalitarian Minds examines his legacy along with several contemporary applications of his ideas about dissidence, solidarity, and the human being’s existential confrontation with unjust politics. Expanding the current possibilities of comparative political theory, the author puts Patocka’s ideas about dissidence, citizen mobilization, and civic responsibility into conversation with notable world historical figures like Mahatma Gandhi, Vaclav Havel, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and other contemporary activists. In adding a fresh voice to contemporary conversations on transcending injustice, Confronting Totalitarian Minds seeks to educate a wider audience about this philosopher’s continued relevance to political dissidents across the world."--

Author : Aspen E. Brinton
Publisher : Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press
Page : 299 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2021-05-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9788024645377

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Confronting Totalitarian Minds: Jan Patočka on Politics and Dissidence by Aspen E. Brinton Pdf

The Czech philosopher Jan Patocka not only witnessed some of the most turbulent politics of twentieth-century Central Europe, but shaped his philosophy in response to that tumult. One of the last students of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, he inspired Václav Havel and other dissidents who confronted the Communist regime before 1989, as well as being actively involved in authoring and enacting Charter 77. He died in 1977 from medical complications resulting from interrogations of the secret police. Confronting Totalitarian Minds examines his legacy along with several contemporary applications of his ideas about dissidence, solidarity, and the human being’s existential confrontation with unjust politics. Expanding the current possibilities of comparative political theory, the author puts Patocka’s ideas about dissidence, citizen mobilization, and civic responsibility into conversation with notable world historical figures like Mahatma Gandhi, Vaclav Havel, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and other contemporary activists. In adding a fresh voice to contemporary conversations on transcending injustice, Confronting Totalitarian Minds seeks to educate a wider audience about this philosopher’s continued relevance to political dissidents across the world.

Author : Delia Popescu
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 200 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2011-12-16
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780739149591

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Political Action in Václav Havel's Thought by Delia Popescu Pdf

Political Action in Vaclav Havel’s Thought: The Responsibility of Resistance, by Delia Popescu, explores the Czech dissident’s theory of individual opposition, resistance to oppression, and individual responsibility. The book contributes to our understanding of both the extreme circumstances of oppression and to the subversive uses of oppression in modern liberal democracy.

Author : Edward F. Findlay
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 267 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2012-02-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780791488065

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Caring for the Soul in a Postmodern Age by Edward F. Findlay Pdf

The first full exploration of the political thought of Jan Patocka, student of Husserl and Heidegger and mentor to Václav Havel.

Author : Daniel Brennan
Publisher : Brill/Rodopi
Page : 8 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2016-10-20
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9004332189

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The Political Thought of Vaclav Havel by Daniel Brennan Pdf

This book explores the influences on the thought of Vaclav Havel and how Havel develops a unique political philosophy from these. This is informed from the phenomenological tradition. The book situates this philosophy among current debates in liberalism and agonism."

Author : Delia Popescu
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 187 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780739149577

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Political Action in Václav Havel's Thought by Delia Popescu Pdf

Political Action in Vaclav Havel's Thought: The Responsibility of Resistance, by Delia Popescu, examines resistance to oppression and individual responsibility in political action, all in the context of Vaclav Havel's political philosophy. The famous anti-communist dissident, acclaimed playwright, former President of the Czech Republic, and eminent political thinker argues that there is a certain tendency in modern humanity towards the creation, or at least toleration, of a political system that is invasive and controlling. Not unlike Tocqueville and Arendt, Havel claims that modern liberal democracy contains potential tendencies toward a new form of despotism that capitalizes on modern alienation and social atomization. Political Action in Vaclav Havel's Thought suggests that Havel's theory of individual opposition can be used to secure political freedom under the conditions of modernity. Popescu demonstrates that Havel's idea of attaining true political participation and freedom requires a strong connection between an individually constructed ethics and the realm of politics. On this basis she reveals that a thick notion of morality can be usefully integrated into an account of both private and public accountability. Vaclav Havel's essays, plays, speeches, and letters can therefore be integrated into a coherent political theory which contributes significantly to some of the central debates in modern political thought. Delia Popescu concludes that Havel's theory of individual opposition to totalitarianism may also serve as the foundation for a conception of responsible participation in modern liberal democracies.

Author : James F. Pontuso
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 194 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0742522563

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Václav Havel by James F. Pontuso Pdf

More than any other public figure, VOclav Havel has reflected on the opportunities and dilemmas facing humankind as a result of the collapse of Communism. In VOclav Havel: Civic Responsibility in the Postmodern Age, James F. Pontuso argues that Havel's life as a dissident and political leader, his political philosophy, and his plays must be understood as connected to one another. Pontuso skillfully explores these connections and explains Havel's prescriptions for political life.

Author : Daniel Brennan
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 197 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2016-10-05
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9789004332195

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The Political Thought of Václav Havel by Daniel Brennan Pdf

This book explores the influences on the thought of Václav Havel and how Havel develops a unique political philosophy from these. This is informed from the phenomenological tradition. The book situates this philosophy among current debates in liberalism and agonism.

Author : Jonathan Bolton
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 485 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2012-04-25
Category : History
ISBN : 9780674069374

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Worlds of Dissent by Jonathan Bolton Pdf

Worlds of Dissent analyzes the myths of Central European resistance popularized by Western journalists and historians, and replaces them with a picture of the struggle against state repression as the dissidents themselves understood, debated, and lived it. In the late 1970s, when Czech intellectuals, writers, and artists drafted Charter 77 and called on their government to respect human rights, they hesitated to name themselves “dissidents.” Their personal and political experiences—diverse, uncertain, nameless—have been obscured by victory narratives that portray them as larger-than-life heroes who defeated Communism in Czechoslovakia. Jonathan Bolton draws on diaries, letters, personal essays, and other first-person texts to analyze Czech dissent less as a political philosophy than as an everyday experience. Bolton considers not only Václav Havel but also a range of men and women writers who have received less attention in the West—including Ludvík Vaculík, whose 1980 diary The Czech Dream Book is a compelling portrait of dissident life. Bolton recovers the stories that dissidents told about themselves, and brings their dilemmas and decisions to life for contemporary readers. Dissidents often debated, and even doubted, their own influence as they confronted incommensurable choices and the messiness of real life. Portraying dissent as a human, imperfect phenomenon, Bolton frees the dissidents from the suffocating confines of moral absolutes. Worlds of Dissent offers a rare opportunity to understand the texture of dissent in a closed society.

Author : David Gilbreath Barton
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Press
Page : 393 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2021-10-05
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780822966777

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Havel by David Gilbreath Barton Pdf

This is the story of a man who tried to resurrect the spirit of democratic life. He was born into a time of chaos and absurdity, and he took it as his fate to carry a candle into the night. This is his story and the story of many others, the writers, artists, actors, and philosophers who took it upon themselves to remember a tradition that had failed so miserably it had almost been forgotten. Václav Havel (1936–2011), the famous Czech dissident, intellectual, and playwright, was there when a half million people came to Wenceslas Square to demand an end to Communism in 1989. Many came to hear him call for a free Czechoslovakia, for democratic elections, and a return to Europe. The demonstrators roared when he spoke. “Havel to the castle,” they chanted— meaning Havel for president. And a few weeks later, Havel became a most unusual president. He was sometimes misunderstood and not always popular, but by the time of his death in 2011, the world recognized Havel as one of the most prominent figures of the twentieth century. Born into one of the most prominent and wealthy families in Prague, Havel was the constant subject of attention and an artistic eccentric in a family of businessmen. A young Havel and his family were cast by the Communist takeover as class enemies. Havel traveled a dark road that, ironically, provided the experiences he needed to reconnect not only to his own “ground of being” but to the traditions of civic society. This biography is the story of Havel’s inward journey in his underground years and thus the story of how Havel, the outsider, became the ultimate insider as president of the nation. In this intimate and sweeping portrayal of Havel, David Barton reveals the eccentricities of the last president of Czechoslovakia, and the first president of the Czech Republic.

Author : Michael Barber
Publisher : Zeta Books
Page : 259 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2011-01-01
Category : Phenomenology
ISBN : 9786068266121

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Schutzian Research vol. 3 / 2011 by Michael Barber Pdf

Author : Barbara J. Falk
Publisher : Central European University Press
Page : 520 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2003-01-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9639241393

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The Dilemmas of Dissidence in East-Central Europe by Barbara J. Falk Pdf

"In addition to the huge list of written sources from samizdat works to recent essays, Falk's sources include interviews with many personalities of those events as well as videos and films."--Jacket.

Author : Aviezer Tucker
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2015-10-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781316445372

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The Legacies of Totalitarianism by Aviezer Tucker Pdf

The first political theory of post-Communism examines its implications for understanding liberty, rights, transitional justice, property rights, privatization, rule of law, centrally planned public institutions, and the legacies of totalitarian thought in language and discourse. The transition to post-totalitarianism was the spontaneous adjustment of the rights of the late-totalitarian elite to its interest. Post-totalitarian governments faced severe scarcity in the supply of justice. Rough justice punished the perpetrators and compensated their victims. Historical theories of property rights became radical, and consequentialist theories, conservative. Totalitarianism in Europe disintegrated but did not end. The legacies of totalitarianism in higher education met New Public Management, totalitarian central planning under a new label. Totalitarianism divorced language from reality through the use of dialectics that identified opposites and the use of logical fallacies to argue for ideological conclusions. This book illustrates these legacies in the writings of Habermas, Derrida, and Žižek about democracy, personal responsibility, dissidence, and totalitarianism.

Author : Balázs Trencsenyi,Michal Kopeček,Luka Lisjak Gabrijelčič,Maria Falina,Mónika Baár
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2018-11-10
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780192565075

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A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe by Balázs Trencsenyi,Michal Kopeček,Luka Lisjak Gabrijelčič,Maria Falina,Mónika Baár Pdf

A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe is a synthetic work, authored by an international team of researchers, covering twenty national cultures and 250 years. It goes beyond the conventional nation-centered narratives and presents a novel vision especially sensitive to the cross-cultural entanglement of political ideas and discourses. Its principal aim is to make these cultures available for the global 'market of ideas' and revisit some of the basic assumptions about the history of modern political thought, and modernity as such. The present volume is the final part of the project, following Volume I: Negotiating Modernity in the 'Long Nineteenth Century', and Volume II, Part I: Negotiating Modernity in the 'Short Twentieth Century' (1918-1968) (OUP, 2018). Its starting point is the defeat of the vision of 'socialism with a human face' in 1968 and the political discourses produced by the various 'consolidation' or 'normalization' regimes. It continues with mapping the exile communities' and domestic dissidents' critical engagement with the local democratic and anti-democratic traditions as well as with global trends. Rather than achieving the coveted 'end of history', however, the liberal democratic order created in East Central Europe after 1989 became increasingly contested from left and right alike. Thus, instead of a comfortable conclusion pointing to the European integration of most of these countries, the book closes with a reflection on the fragility of democracy in this part of the world and beyond.