The political thought of Václav Havel : : philosophical influences and contemporary applications / / by Daniel Brennan.

• Superior document: Value Inquiry Book Series. Central European Value Studies, Volume 295
• VerfasserIn: Brennan, Daniel,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, Netherlands : : Brill Rodopi,, 2017.; ©2017
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Series: Value inquiry book series. Central-European value studies ; Volume 295.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (197 pages).

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 Patočka 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.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Themes in Havel’s Thought -- The Influence of Jan Patočka -- Further Patočkean Ideas in Havel’s Thought -- Living in Truth as an Existential Concept -- Havel’s Concern for Meaningful Political Discourse -- Václav Havel’s Political thought as a Liberal Philosophy -- Havel’s Liberal Agonism -- Conclusion: Havel and the Neoliberal State -- Bibliography -- Index.