Roughly a third of Charter 77’s leadership were philosophy students

Evidence

More directly, Patočka became an activist himself. In 1976, aged nearly seventy and in fragile health, he joined Havel and others in signing the famous declaration of political opposition known as Charter 77. It could almost have been called the Philosophers’ Charter: of its main representatives during the next thirteen years, almost a third (twelve out of thirty-eight) were either philosophers or former students of philosophy, many of them having studied with Patočka. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 924

Categorization

• SHARE: The ‘Philosophers’ Charter’ statistic — twelve of thirty-eight representatives were philosophers — is a niche detail for someone interested in philosophy’s social impact.