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Patocka Jan. Heretical Essays in the Philosophy ofHistory. Translated by Erazim. Kohak. Edited by James Dodd. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company, 1996. xvi + 189 pp. Cloth, $39.95; paper, $16.95-- Patocka's Heretical Essays were first published in Czechoslovakia in 1975. The essays display a unique phenomenological interpretation of Western history. In the first essay Patocka explains his project as being based on a phenomenology of "work, production, action, and creation" (p. 5). Following Heidegger's phenomenology, Patocka accepts concealment of being and the distinction of ontic and ontological phenomena. However, Patocka departs from Heidegger by emphasizing the historical dependencies of being. Initially, people were natural. They worked to survive without using their ability to problematize. The transition to historical being is marked by the conception of divine life. This life is not marred by work, pain, birth, and death. Human life is distinct from divine life though there is resemblance through the eternal character of the human community by means of generative continuity. This idea presupposes a questioning that puts humankind on the journey of history.