Introduction: Letters between Krzysztof Michalski and Jan Patočka (1973-1976)

The letters published here comprise the correspondence between Jan Patočka and Krzysztof Michalski in the years 1973-1976. Michalski (by then a Ph.D. student in Warsaw initially asking for help with his dissertation on Heidegger) later became founder of the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna and Professor of Philosophy at Boston University. The letters represent the full correspondence that has been preserved or found up to the present time (12 letters by Michalski, 40 letters by Patoc ka). Initially, much of the correspondence evolves as a discussion of Heidegger's philosophy. Gradually it also turns into a reflection on the "responsibility of the philosopher" and a document of solidarity forged in the exchange of philosophical friendship. The letters demonstrate how the engagement with a "life in truth" for many Eastern European dissidents was at odds with the aesthetics of banality and the bureaucratization of life.