The body at the front: Corporeity and community in Jan Patocka's heretical essays in the philosophy of history

Meacham, Darian Evan

Abstract

Abstract: This paper investigates the relation in PatoËka’s thought between the concepts of the “front” and the “solidarity of the shaken”,which we find in the Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History, particularly
the sixth essay, “Wars of the Twentieth Century and The
Twentieth Century as War”, and the phenomenological analysis of corporeity that we find in PatoËka’s work from the late sixties, namely, “The Natural World and Phenomenology” (1967). We argue for a reading of the “front” and the “solidarity of the shaken” that emphasizes the importance of the body and intercorporeity. Based on this I argue for an interpretation of PatoËka’s “absolute” as life’s transcendence of itself.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2007
• Journal: Studia Phaenomenologica
• Print ISSN: 1582-5647
• Electronic ISSN: 2069-0061
• Publisher: Philosophy Documentation Center
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 7
• Pages: 353-376
• Keywords: Patocka, Merleau-Ponty, boundary, body, intercorporeity, life, battlefront, “solidarity of the shaken”, movement
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1033645