Patocka’s concept of post-Europe

Résumé En

The task of my inquiry is to lay out the main tenets of Patočka’s discussion of theconcept of “post-Europe” and “post-European humanity”, as they emerge from his late worksHeretical Essays in the Philosophy of History, Plato and Europe, and Europe and post-Europe.In the first part, I examine Patočka’s account of the “the shipwreck of Europe” and will bring outthe various strands of analysis embedded in this thesis. In particular, I insist on the intimate linkestablished between the political end of Europe and the intrinsic finitude of the Europeanhistorical project. Secondly, I reconstruct Patočka’s philosophical genealogy of Europe and post-Europe and explain that his diagnosis of an “end of Europe” rests on a critical discussion of theteleological narrative of Europe advanced by Husserl in his Crisis. Finally, I try to make sense ofPatočka’s thesis that the demise of Europe does not foreclose the possibility of a renewal, thateven after its historical collapse, there still remains a “specific future for Europe”.