LITMIR.BIZ

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      Philosophy begins with wonder, as Plato and Aristotle taught us. This book began with my own wondering, which led me to search for the meaning of the notion of “crisis” in the title of Husserl’s book The Crisis of European Sciences. I followed many paths, some of which I shared with my students in philosophy at Murdoch University. They taught me a lot and helped me to clarify some of the complicated issues we encountered together. They also taught me that one can speak about Husserl’s and Heidegger’s ideas without being entangled in their language; and, in turn, I keep teaching them to use simple, but not simplistic, language, which helps a lot in clarifying one’s own thinking. They are too many to name. I thank them all.

      I owe a lot to Ivan Chvatík and to our many conversations, which help me to understand Jan Patočka.

      For scholarly input, those who deserve my gratitude are also too many to name. Apologies to those I have forgotten. It was a long journey. I would like to thank, especially, Erika Abrams, Ingo Farin, Jan Frei, Chris Grant, Ludger Hagedorn, Pavel Kouba, Jeff Malpas, Dermot Moran, Steve Schofield, Ciaran Summerton, Laďka Švandová, Lucy Tatman, and Anita Williams.

      I gratefully acknowledge the support of the Australian Research Council for the 2010–2012 research project, Judgment, Responsibility, and the Life-World; and two Fellowships of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic for Foreign Specialists Engaged in Bohemistic Studies, supporting my research in the Jan Patočka Archives in Prague (August–September 2007 and September–October 2010). I have also benefited from the support of Murdoch University, Australia; the Jan Patočka Archives at the Center for Theoretical Study at Charles University in Prague; and the Institute of Philosophy at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

      I would like to express my gratitude to anonymous readers of the manuscript. I would also like to thank Darja Zoubková and Hana Matysková, from the secretariat of the Center for Theoretical Study in Prague, for all their help when I worked at the archives; and to Urszula Dawkins for her patience with copyediting the manuscripts, while reining in my Slavic spirit whenever it wanted to produce novel forms of English.

      For early guidance and continuing support, I wish to give a special thanks to Claire Colebrook and Horst Ruthrof. They have done much to help with my thinking. Last, I want to thank my daughter, Lenka, for her critical insights, and her tolerance, help, and love.