Jiří Polívka was a Czech philosopher and former pupil of Jan Patočka. Jiří Polívka studied mathematics and philosophy at Charles University in Prague. Between 1963 and 1969 he worked in the Department of Philosophy in the Faculty of Science, Charles University. Then, until 1980, he worked in the Department of Mathematical Logic and Basic Mathematical Structures in the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University. From 1968 to 1977, Polívka was Jan Patočkaʼs student, and attended also Patočkaʼs underground seminars. Moreover, he was in charge of writing the reconstructed text of lectures by Patočka. He also contributed to the rescue of Patočkaʼs philosophical legacy, as he hid it in a safe and secret location. In 1980, he was released from Charles University as a result of political persecution and then worked as a labourer until the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Then, until 1993, he worked in the Department of Mathematical Logic and Philosophy of Mathematics at Charles University. He lectured phenomenology and the basics of metaphysics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics and the Faculty of Arts at Charles University. From 1993 he worked as an assistant professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Religion at Charles University in Prague and lectured on phenomenology, metaphysics, and the history of medieval philosophy. He waa also a member of the Center for Phenomenological Research, jointly run by the Czech Academy of Sciences and Charles University. Polívka dealt mainly with phenomenology as a basic discipline, especially methods of philosophy in relation to the traditional conception of philosophy as ontology and theory of knowledge. He also focused on concepts of phenomenology by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger.