Ways of Self-Transcendence: On Sacrifice for Nothing and Hyperbolic Ontology

Abstract

This article will take Jan Patočka’s concepts of care for the soul and sacrifice for nothing as a starting point to discuss the ontological premises of a renewed epimeleia heautou, or care of the self. I will argue that Patočka understands the ancient Good in terms of Heidegger’s ontological difference. Care for the soul thus ends up with an empty transcendence. In contrast, I will advocate a hyperbolic concept of Being. All that exists is characterized by being beyond beingness, an inner transcendence of itself. This provides new ontocosmological as well as political perspectives.