Peter interviews the philosopher Erin Plunkett about the 20th-century Czech thinker Jan Patočka, exploring how his thought can help guide us through the problems of truth and beauty in the 21st century. Erin is currently Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Hertfordshire. She is a co-editor of The Selected Writings of Jan Patočka: Care for the Soul, published in 2022 by Bloomsbury. 

Patreon: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/thelandbehind⁠

Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/thelandbehindpodcast

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(00:42) Who is Erin Plunkett?

(04:04) Who was Jan Patočka?

(08:40) Patočka as a philosophical hero

(12:03) The best way to think about Patočka’s thought

(17:20) Meaning as disclosure

(18:03) Patočka’s phenomenology

(21:30) Aletheia

(31:25) The Solidarity of the Shaken

(35:14) The relationship between philosophy and art

(48:48) The essence of art before it has been institutionalised

(52:21) Truth, Beauty and Goodness

(1:00:46) Beauty and the Limits of Truth

(1:07:40) How to Identify the Truth in 2024