106HEIDEGGER, MARTIN
Hegel’s other works include Science of
Logic (1812–1816), Encyclopedia of the
Philosophical Sciences in Outline (1817),
Foundations of the Philosophy of Right:
Natural Right and Political Science in Out-
line (1821), and Lectures on the Philoso-
phy of Religion (1895).
HEIDEGGER, MARTIN (1889–1976).
Heidegger’s early work is in phenomenol-
ogy. He believed that time and tempo-
rality are key factors in understanding
human nature and that we should live in
anticipatory resoluteness toward our own
death. Heidegger argued that Western
philosophy suffered because of its forget-
fulness of being. His later work saw a key
role for poetry in the recovery of being.
Heidegger was a member of the Nazi
party briefly in the 1930s. Despite this
regrettable legacy, Heidegger has been
profoundly influential in continental
philosophy, impacting thinkers such as
Sartre and Derrida. His works include
The Theory of Categories and Meaning
in Duns Scotus (1916), Being and Time
(1927), What is Metaphysics? (1929), Kant
and the Problem of Metaphysics (1929),
On the Essence of Reason (1929), The
Self-Assertion of the German University
(1933), Hölderlin and the Essence of Poetry
(1936), On the Essence of Truth (1947),
Holzwege: Off the Beaten Path (1949),
Introduction to Metaphysics (1952), What
is Called Thinking? (1954), On the Ques-
tion of Being (1955), What is Philosophy?
(1956), Identity and Difference (1957),
Composure (1959), On the Way to Lan-
guage (1959), Nietzsche (1961), What is a
Thing? (1962), Views (1970), and Phe-
nomenology and Theology (1970).HELL, CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION
OF. The Christian account of an infinite
God of perfect love not only raises the
possibilities for human happiness and
fulfillment to extraordinary heights, it
also implies extreme depths of loss and
misery. In particular, human beings may
lose out on the eternal relationship with
God for which they were created. The
doctrine of hell is the elaboration of this
frightful possibility.
The traditional account of this doc-
trine involves three crucial claims: that
some persons will never accept the grace
of God, and therefore will not be saved;
that those who reject the grace of God
will be consigned to hell, a place of great
misery that is the just punishment for
their sins; and that there is no escape from
hell, either by repentance or suicide or
annihilation.
The claim that eternal misery is the
just punishment for sin has often been
defended by traditional theologians on
the ground that sin is infinitely serious,
and therefore demands an infinite pun-
ishment. The infinite seriousness of sin is
due to the fact that one owes God perfect
honor and obedience, so any failure in
this regard puts one in infinite debt to
God. In the same vein, others have
contended that since God is infinite in