The Formation of the Political: A Patočkian Perspective

Abstract

This article offers an interpretation, from Jan Patočka’s philosophy on the distinctions between formation and education in order to address the problem of how the sense of the political is formed. The article approaches this issue from a phenomenological perspective that understood that concepts within situations of the world of the life, where ethical and political problems emerge. To this end, it draws on texts written by Jan Patočka that provide a synthetic view of education and formation, articulating them with key notions and concepts of his philosophy such as asubjectivity, the solidarity of the shaken, and the idea of justice and freedom, while also offering an approach to understanding individuation as formation. The study leads to the conclusion that the formation of the political is closely linked to civic education, understood as part of non-political politics in the Patočkian sense. From this perspective, an intersection between ethics, history, and politics emerges, grounded in a phenomenological horizon of the political.