Abstract: 

The topic of this paper is the idea, historicity, promise and failure of scientific culture, and what that has to do with philosophy. It takes as a point of departure the late writings of the Czech philosopher Jan Patočka on the concept of Europe, including Plato and Europe, The Heretical Essays, and Europa und Nach-Europa. Patočka's thought is read as a transformation of Edmund Husserl's approach to questions having to do with the historicity of the idea of reason found in texts such as his 1935 Vienna Lecture and his final work, The Crisis of the European Sciences. There is also the story of a limping pilgrim. 

Bio: 

James Dodd is the Werner Marx Chair in Phenomenology and Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College, The New School, in New York. He specializes in phenomenology and 19th and 20th century continental philosophy. Current research includes the history of transcendental logic from Kant to Husserl, the philosophy of architecture, the philosophy of violence, and the work of the Czech dissident philosopher Jan Patočka. He has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, including a Fritz-Thyssen Fellowship in 1996/1997 and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship in 2000. Publications include The Heresies of Jan Patočka: Phenomenology, History, Politics (Northwestern, 2023), winner of the 2025 Edward Ballard Prize; Phenomenological Reflections on Violence. A Skeptical Approach (Routledge, 2017); Phenomenology, Architecture, and the Built World. Exercises in Philosophical Anthropology (Brill, 2017); Violence and Phenomenology (Routledge, 2009; Paperback, 2014); Crisis and Reflection: An Essay on Husserl’s Crisis of the European Sciences (Kluwer, 2004); Idealism and Corporeity: An Essay on the Problem of the Body in Husserl's Phenomenology (Kluwer, 1997); as well as numerous articles on Hegel, Schelling, Nietzsche, and Husserl.

 P.J. Gorre recently completed a dissertation under the supervision of James Dodd entitled, A Plea for Heresy in Philosophy, which draws inspiration from the "heretical phenomenologies" of both Frantz Fanon and Jan Patočka to challenge the problem of Eurocentrism in the history of philosophy. He teaches philosophy in the Department of Social Science & Cultural Studies at Pratt Institute as well as history and theory at Parsons School for Design, where he is also Director of Curricular Affairs & Implementation.