Jan Patocka is now considered to have been one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century. He was a student of both Husserl and Heidegger. He lived most of his adult life in Communist Czechoslovakia, where he was at times banned from publishing his work and from holding academic positions. Having written his Heretical Essays, Patocka defied the Communist regime as one of the spokespersons associated with Charta 77. He died in 1977, following two months of police interrogation.
James Dodd is Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Philosophy at the New School for Social Research. He is the author of Violence and Phenomenology (Routledge, 2009).
Erazim Kohak is a Czech philosopher who has been Professor of Philosophy at Boston University and then at Charles University in Prague. He is also a senior research fellow at the Centre of Global Studies at the Institute of Philosophy at the Czech Academy of Science in Prague. He is the author of many books, including Idea and Experience: Husserl's Project of Phenomenology, The Embers and the Stars: Philosophical Inquiry into the Moral Sense of Nature. Jan Patocka: His Thought and Writings, and The Green Halo: A Bird's-Eye View of Ecological Ethics,