Patočka and Socratic knowing of the unknown

Socrates as a philosopher is present in Patočka’s thinking in irreplaceable manner, and in all periods of his philosophical life. Patočka mainly accepts the Socratic idea of knowing the unknown. He is developing this idea step by step throughout the various periods of his philosophical work. Socratic knowing of the unknown, transformed through the problematisation and the moment of negativity successively into the principle of historicity, means for Patočka the essential resort for his own conception of philosophy of history in its top form. Within this conception he is attempting for a new, historical understanding of the sense of human life, and also of the sense of history. For Patočka, the history is understood on the basis of constant problematisation, it’s infinite, unresolved and opened – but it must remain this way, if we don’t want to think about the end of history.