Ivan Chvatík finished his graduate study under the supervision of leading Czech philosopher Jan Patocka. After Patocka’s death in 1977, he became head of the clandestine Jan Patocka Archive, which now has become part of the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic. In 1993, he became the co-director of the Center for Theoretical Study, an interdisciplinary institute for advanced study at Charles University and the Academy of Science. He became the editor of the first complete Czech translation of Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time (1996), and is currently in charge of editing Patocka’s Complete Works (twelve volumes published to date out of a planned twenty-five).