Jan Patočka on structuralism : connections and relationships

Abstract

The Czech philosopher Jan Patočka (1907–1977) knew the representatives of the Prague Linguistic Circle (e.g., Vilém Mathesius, Roman Jakobson and Jan Mukařovský) well, but they never established closer scholarly cooperation. The aims of this study are 1) to present Patočka’s views on structuralism, 2) to outline Patočka’s relationship to Czech structuralism, and especially with Jan Mukařovský. If Mukařovský can be considered one of the leading representatives of Czech structuralism and analyticstructural thinking about art, Patočka was a thinker who sought a synthesizing philosophical approach.