Abstract
In this reflection of the book To Think from the Second Place, the author thematizes the main theses of the work. She interprets Alice Koubová's book on the background of her previous works and she particularly emphasizes the concept of performativity.
This concept touches especially on Alice Koubová's take of the human self - this is not an entity enclosed upon itself but a dynamic entity that gains reality by stepping outside itself. The self constitutes itself in acting, thinking, and speaking.
This leads to a new conception of thought in general - thinking is a thinking through of what has been opened in speech or what has been done. Thus thinking itself depends on the fact that one does not only think but acts, talks, and meets others.
In this sense, Alice Koubová thematizes a "thinking from second place". By this she means that thinking is secondary vis a vis our everyday reality.
Consequently, philosophy too is secondary as to everyday reality. This status of "being second" is not something to be revised, contested or mourned but it is in this "secondary nature" that thinking's potential lies hidden.
Because philosophy is not essential to reality, it can take a step back from it, reflect on it and by this nourish it, or at times, even interrupt or suspend it.
