Resistenza senza redenzione? Il problema del senso nella fenomenologia di Jan Patočka

Aptly described as “the last great philosophy book of the twentieth century”, Jan Patočka’s Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History is an original interpretation of European history, effected through a deeply personal approach to the phenomenological method. By extending his reflections to the fields of politics and ethics, the Czech philosopher intends to shift the focus of the phenomenological method from a theoretical, intellectualistic dimension of life to a practical one. This paper aims to suggest how such an operation, independently of the author’s will, paradoxically exposes phenomenological philosophy to the risk of losing sight precisely of its main goal: the possibility of endowing ethical and practical life with the meaning that constitutes its foundation. By reviewing his writings, and comparing them with the reflections of Edmund Husserl, Patočka’s master and source of inspiration, I intend to show how the difficulty alluded to reveals itself especially in his account of European history and its evolution: it appears devoid of any teleological possibility, and therefore intimately exposed to the risk of meaninglessness.