Patocka's Reflection on Herder's Philosophy of History against the background of the Enlightenment and Kant's Philosophy

The contribution is dedicated to Patocka's reflection on Herder's philosophy of history against the background of the Enlightenment and Kant's philosophy. Patocka recognises the line of the German idealogical movement in the history of philosophy, which starts in the German Enlightenment with Herder and Kant, continuing in German idealism and culminating in Hegel's philosophy. It is a line of thought based on developing humanity as a grounds for the philosophical understanding of history. In the second half of the 18 th century, German philosophy had diverted from the initial ideas of the Enlightenment. Patocka considers this an attempt at a turnabout of the European spirit from strong rationalism to recovered European spirituality based on metaphysics and raised as a counterweight to modern scientific rationality. Herder's philosophy of humanity is an important part of this view of Patocka's because he considers him to stand on the intersection between these two positions of Modern Era philosophy.