Patočka's Concept of the Spiritual Roots of Europe

A synthesis of Jan Patočka's account of the spiritual roots of Europe in the first part of the paper provides background for a critical reflection on a number of the basic philosophical presuppositions of this account which are presented in the second part. These presuppositions are Patočka's concept of history and of the historicity of human existence. Critical reflection reveals that the account of humanity and history implied in these two concepts can only be reconciled with the concept of the spiritual roots of Europe with difficulty based on the platonic (and Christian) form of the care of the soul.

Keywords: Patočka Jan; Care for the soul; Spiritual roots of Europe; Plato; Metaphysics; Movement of the soul; Crisis; Transformation; Transcendence