The Czech philosopher Jan Patocka (1907-1977) is widely recognized as the most influential thinker to come from postwar Eastern Europe. This book presents his most mature ideas about the history of Western philosophy.

"Patocka's contribution to philosophy and, in particular, to post-Heideggerian thought has shaped the European debate about the future of philosophy and phenomenology. Plato and Europe is one of the finest introductions to phenomenology. Its major thesis, however, is an extremely powerful and fascinating argument concerning the specificity and heritage of European thought: that European thought and civilization rests on the Platonic conception of the 'tendance of the soul'."--Rodolphe Gasche, State University of New York, Buffalo