Abstract

The study deals with Jan Patocka’s unfinished text "Transcendentalia and Categories" which is appended in English translation as a supplement. First, the study confirms Patocka’s thesis on the origin of Comenius’s triadism in the thought of Nicholas of Cusa and, at the same time, on the original features of Comenius’s conception, namely his systematic, deductive order of triads. Secondly, it investigates who mediated Cusan ideas to Comenius. The most important of these mediators was Pinder; among the others can be counted Weigel, Arndt, Alsted and possibly Paracelsus too. Patocka even assumes that Comenius actually read some works of Cusa himself. Last but not least, the study extends the validity of Patocka’s thesis to the new finding regarding Comenius’s metaphor of "God’s three books". © 2016 FILOSOFIA.