Jan Patočka

Jan Patočka is considered one of the main phenomenological philosophers in Europe. He studied with one of phenomenology’s founding fathers, Edmund Husserl, as well as with Husserl’s pupil Martin Heidegger. In 1977, along with Jiří Hájek and Václav Havel, Patočka became a prominent spokesperson for and cofounder of the Charta 77 human rights movement in Czechoslovakia. Among his works is the 1975 book of essays Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History (English translation 1996).