Being Guilty

Being Guilty examines the thought of six central German philosophers--Kant, Schelling, Schopenhauer, Paul Re, Nietzsche, and Heidegger--on the phenomenon of guilt, or the painful sting of bad conscience suffered when we perform a wrong action. The work also examines these philosophers' views on responsibility, freedom, and conscience. It concludes with the novel argument that the thought of Heidegger provides a synthesis of the insights of the previous philosophers and overcomes their deficiencies. Through Heidegger and his predecessors, the author articulates a new theoretical approach to guilt.