Studia Philosophica

Volume 57, Issue 1, 2010

Ve službě filosofii Na počest Jiřího Gabriela: In Service of Philosophy. In Honor of Jiří Gabriel

From the history of Polish encounters with Jan Patočka
On closeness, friendship and memory in times of difficulty

Intellectual contacts of Polish philosophers with Jan Patočka date back to the 30s of the 20th century. They developed in the times when the phenomenological movement in Poland had already been established, mainly as a result of the activity of Roman Ingarden, which is why the interest in Patočka’s ideas and further contacts with him enhanced Polish phenomenological thought. In the newest history of Polish philosophy, the presence of Patočka’s ideas, including his original interpretation of phenomenology, has been little studied. – Polish contacts with Patočka were initiated by Tadeusz Kroński and Irena Krońska still before the Second World War. In the post-war years they continued and developed into warm bonds of friendship, mostly owing to Krońska herself and Kroński’s friends and colleagues: Bronisław Baczko and Leszek Kołakowski. Close relations between Patočka and the Polish philosophical community owe much to Tadeusz Kotarbiński. The ideas of Slavonic cooperation were close to Kotarbiński’s heart. He met Patočka in Prague, hosted him in Warsaw and in the 70s openly appealed to Polish and Czechoslovakian authorities to stop political persecution of the Czech philosopher.