The Political Thought of Václav Havel

Philosophical Influences and Contemporary Applications
Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-90-04-33218-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 295, 8 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 295 g

Reihe: Value Inquiry Book Series / Central European Value Studies

The book considers Václav Havel’s body of writing as a cohesive whole offering a consistent political philosophy. This bold claim is backed up through a close examination of Havel’s plays, letters, essays and aphorisms. The political philosophy that a close reading of Havel reveals is a liberal one. However, Havel is not the run-of the-mill liberal having influences from the field of phenomenology, Masaryk, Husserl, Levinas Patocka and Heidegger which give him a nuanced view of the self. Havel sees the self as something always being formed. Hence for Havel man has an ability to ‘shake’ his current state and invite transcendence into his life. This agonistic process reveals our responsibility and liberates the self from forces which coerce behaviour.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Brennan, Daniel

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1. Themes in Havel’s Thought
Chapter 2. The Influence of Jan Patocka
Chapter 3. Further Patockean Ideas in Havel’s Thought
Chapter 4. Living in Truth as an Existential Concept
Chapter 5. Havel’s Concern for Meaningful Political Discourse
Chapter 6. Václav Havel’s Political Thought as a Liberal Philosophy.
Chapter 7. Havel’s Liberal Agonism
Chapter 8. Conclusion: Havel and the Neoliberal State

Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Dr Daniel Brennan, PhD (2013), Bond University, is a Senior Teaching Fellow at that University. He has published articles on the thought of Jan Patocka and Vaclav Havel, as well as in the area of political and social philosophy.