The prospects for revolution political thinking in the West and East in the 20th century | Aussichten auf die Revolution Politisches Denken in West und Ost im 20. Jahrhundert

Abstract

Numerous Western intellectuals became apologists for totalitarian regimes during the 20th century. East Central European philosophers and thinkers such as Jan Patočka, Václav Havel, and Czesław Miłosz, who knew both National Socialist and Communist tyranny, enjoyed a special immunity against such misled thinking. But their knowledge did not lead them to withdraw from politics. Rather, they searched within the European philosophical heritage for points of contact for another understanding of politics. Using their power of the powerless, they made an essential contribution to the collapse of the Communist system.