Europe Beyond Europe: Patočka’s Concept of Care for the Soul and Mencius. An Intercultural Consideration

Lau, Kwok-Ying

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-44764-3_6

Europe Beyond Europe: Patočka’s Concept of Care for the Soul and Mencius. An Intercultural Consideration

Kwok-Ying Lau⁴

Chapter
First Online: 30 September 2016

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Part of the book series: Contributions To Phenomenology ((CTPH,volume 87))

Abstract

The present chapter is a modest attempt to sketch an answer to the following questions: What is Patočka’s concept of Europe? To what extent can his reflections on Europe, as those of a phenomenological philosopher from the “other Europe,” avoid the Eurocentric overtones of their Husserlian counterpart? Can Patočka’s conception of Europe lead to a non-Eurocentric reformulation of universalizable elements of European humanity, in such a way as to contribute to the enhancement of intercultural understanding?

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Notes

1.
This chapter is the further revised version of a paper presented under the title “Patočka’s Concept of Europe: an Intercultural Consideration” to “An International Conference to Commemorate Jan Patočka 1907–2007 and the 37th Annual Meeting of the Husserl Circle”, organized by the Center for Theoretical Study, Charles University Prague, Center for Phenomenological Research, Charles University Prague, and Institute for Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, held 22–28 April, 2007 in Prague and published in Jan Patočka and the Heritage of Phenomenology. Centenary Papers, ed. Ivan Chvatik and Erika Abrams (Dordrecht: Springer, 2011), pp. 229–244.
2.
Jan Patočka, “Die Selbstbesinnung Europas,” Perspektiven der Philosophie, Vol. 20, 1994, p. 241; quoted from the French translation: “Réflexion sur l’Europe,” in Liberté et sacrifice. Écrits politiques, ed. and French trans. Erika Abrams (Grenoble: Millon, 1990), p. 181.
3.
Jan Patočka, Platon et l’Europe, ed. E. Abrams and J. Němec, French trans. E. Abrams (Lagrasse: Verdier, 1983), p. 99; Plato and Europe, Eng. trans. P. Lom (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002), p. 89.
4.
Jan Patočka, Essais hérétiques sur la philosophie de l’histoire, French trans. E. Abrams with a Preface by P. Ricœur (Lagrasse: Verdier, 1981), pp. 87–88; Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History, ed. J. Dodd, Eng. trans. E. Kohák (Chicago and La Salle: Open Court, 1996), pp. 76–77.
5.
Jan Patočka, Platon et l’Europe, p. 51; Plato and Europe, p. 42.
6.
Jan Patočka, “Masaryk’s and Husserl’s Conception of the Spiritual Crisis of European Humanity,” in Philosophy and Selected Writings, ed. and Eng. trans. E. Kohák (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1989), p. 148. See also French translation: “La conception de la crise spirituelle de l’humanité européenne chez Masaryk et chez Husserl,” in Jan Patočka, La crise du sens, t. 1: Comte, Masaryk, Husserl, ed. and French trans. E. Abrams (Bruxelles: OUSIA, 1985), pp. 24–25.
7.
Ibid., p. 155/37 (English/French).
8.
Jan Patočka, “Die Selbstbesinnung Europas”, op. cit., p. 247; “Réflexion sur l’Europe”, op. cit., p. 188.
9.
Ibid., p. 248/188 (German/French).
10.
Ibid.
11.
Ibid., pp. 249–250/189–190 (German/French). Patočka’s explanation of these three difficulties is extremely succinct; we have therefore somewhat elaborated on his own presentation.
12.
Ibid., p. 250/190 (German/French): “die Welterscheinung, die Welt als Erscheinungsrahmen.”
13.
Ibid., p. 252/192 (German/French).
14.
Ibid., p. 253/193 (German/French).
15.
Edmund Husserl, Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften und die transzendentale Phänomenologie, Husserliana VI, ed. W. Biemel (Den Haag: M. Nijhoff, 1962 [1954]), p. 151; The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, Eng. trans. D. Carr (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1970), p. 150.
16.
Ibid., p. 146/143 (German/English).
17.
Ibid., pp. 141/138, 146/143 (German/English).
18.
Jan Patočka, “Die Selbstbesinnung Europas”, op. cit., p. 253; “Réflexion sur l“Europe”, op. cit., p. 193.
19.
Ibid.
20.
Ibid., p. 255/195 (German/French).
21.
It is precisely the historical nature of the life-world that renders its thematization difficult and complicated. Cf. the in-depth treatment of this problematic by Ludwig Landgrebe in his two articles, “The Problem of a Transcendental Science of the A Priori of the Life-world,” in The Phenomenology of Husserl: Six Essays, ed. D. Welton (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1981), pp. 176–200; “The Life-world and the Historicity of Human Existence,” in Phenomenology and Marxism, ed. B. Waldenfels, Jan M. Broekman and A. Pažanin, Eng. trans. J. Claude Evans, Jr. (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984), pp. 167–204.
22.
Just as Husserl was well aware of the non-givenness of the world as world-horizon, he was also completely cognizant of the non-givenness and, hence, the non-thematization of the “full universal being of the life-world”: “But now the paradoxical question: Can one not [turn to] the life-world, the world of which we are all conscious in life as the world of us all, without in any way making it into a subject of universal investigation, being always given over, rather, to our everyday momentary individual or universal vocational ends and interests—can one not survey it universally in a changed attitude, and can one not seek to get to know it, as what it is and how it is in its own mobility and relativity, make it the subject matter of a universal science, but one which has by no means the goal of universal theory in the sense in which this was sought by historical philosophy and the sciences?” (E. Husserl, Die Krisis …, op. cit., p. 462; The Crisis …, op. cit., p. 383.) For a further discussion, cf. Werner Marx, “The Life-world and its Particular Sub-worlds,” in Reason and World: Between Tradition and Another Beginning, Eng. trans. T. Yates and R. Guess (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1971), pp. 62–76.
23.
Jan Patočka, “Die Selbstbesinnung Europas”, op. cit., p. 256; “Réflexion sur l‘Europe”, op. cit., p. 196.
24.
Ibid.
25.
Ibid., p. 257/197 (German/French).
26.
Edmund Husserl, Die Krisis …, op. cit., p. 14; The Crisis …, op. cit., p. 16.
27.
Jan Patočka, “Die Selbstbesinnung Europas”, op. cit., p. 257; “Réflexion sur l‘Europe”, op. cit., p. 197.
28.
Cf. ibid., pp. 271–272/210 (German/French).
29.
Ibid., p. 272/211 (German/French).
30.
Ibid.
31.
Ibid.
32.
Ibid., p. 273/212 (German/French).
33.
Ibid.
34.
The very concept of care for the soul is also employed by Edward E. Findlay as a strategic concept to support his overall interpretation of Patočka as a phenomenological philosopher of history and politics in his book length study: Caring For the Soul in a Postmodern Age: Politics and Phenomenology in the Thought of Jan Patočka (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002). Yet this fine study is unaware of the intercultural implications of Patočka’s attempt.
35.
Jan Patočka, Platon et l’Europe, p. 43; Plato and Europe, p. 35.
36.
Ibid.
37.
Ibid., p. 44/36 (French/English).
38.
Ibid.
39.
Ibid., p. 50/41 (French/English).
40.
Ibid., p. 52/43 (French/English).
41.
Ibid., p. 57/48 (French/English).
42.
Ibid., p. 58/49 (French/English).
43.
Ibid.
44.
Ibid.
45.
Ibid., p. 98/88 (French/English).
46.
Ibid., p. 99/89 (French/English).
47.
Confucius, The Analects, a New Bilingual Edition, Eng. trans. D. C. Lau (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1992), Book XI, Chap. 12, p. 99, translation modified. The original Chinese text reads:「季路問事鬼神。子曰:未能事人, 焉能事鬼。曰敢問死。曰:未知生,焉知死。」
48.
Ibid., Book VII, Chap. 21, p. 61, translation modified. The original Chinese text reads:「子不語怪力亂神」.
49.
“The Book of Mencius,” 2A:5, in A Source Book of Chinese Philosophy, ed. and Eng. trans. Wing-Tsit Chan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), p. 65, translation slightly modified.
50.
Ibid., 7A:1, p. 78, translation modified.
51.
Mencius, Mencius, A Bilingual Edition, Eng. trans. D. C. Lau (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, revised edition 2003), 7A:46, p. 309.
52.
Mencius, Eng. trans. D. C. Lau, 7A:15, p. 290.
53.
Ibid., 6A:10, p. 57, translation slightly modified.
54.
Jan Patočka, “Europe et après”, in L’Europe après l’Europe, French trans. Erika Abrams, etc. (Paris : Verdier, 2007), pp. 37–136.
55.
Marc Crépon, “Postface: Histoire, éthique et politique : la question de l’Europe”, in L’Europe après l’Europe, op. cit., pp. 292–295.
56.
Jan Patočka, “Europe et après”, op. cit., p. 124.
57.
Jan Patočka, “The Obligation to Resist Injustice,” in Philosophy and Selected Writings, op. cit., pp. 340–343.

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Department of Philosophy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
Kwok-Ying Lau

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Lau, KY. (2016). Europe Beyond Europe: Patočka’s Concept of Care for the Soul and Mencius. An Intercultural Consideration. In: Phenomenology and Intercultural Understanding. Contributions To Phenomenology, vol 87. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44764-3_6

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44764-3_6
Published: 30 September 2016
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