Hans Jonas

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Hans Jonas

1903–1993

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

Because technology can now destroy the future, we have a new duty: act so that human life on earth can continue.

Placement

Political Philosophy & Ethics (20th–21st c.) · Western Europe · Ethics, Science

The Imperative of Responsibility: an ethics for technological civilization and future generations.

Key ideas

Imperative of responsibility
Heuristics of fear

Teachers: Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger

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Influence

Influenced by 2

Immanuel Kant

influenced by
Jonas recast Kant’s imperative for technology: ‘act so that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life’ (Das Prinzip Verantwortung, 1979). H. Jonas, Das Prinzip Verantwortung (1979)
Evidence: AI draft
Immanuel Kant › 1724–1804
Edmund Husserl studied with

studied with ✓
Jonas began his studies in Freiburg in 1921, where he attended Husserl’s seminars and met the young Heidegger; a short period before his years with Heidegger in Marburg. H. Jonas, Erinnerungen (2003)
Evidence: AI draft
Edmund Husserl › 1859–1938

Criticism

Criticizes 1

Martin Heidegger studied with

studied with ✓
Jonas followed Heidegger to Marburg and took his doctorate there in 1928 with a dissertation on the concept of gnosis, under Heidegger and Rudolf Bultmann; it grew into Gnosis und spätantiker Geist (1934). H. Jonas, Erinnerungen (2003)
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
criticised
Jonas warned theologians against borrowing from Heidegger, whose call of Being knows no standard of good, and read existentialism as a nihilistic gnosticism (‘Heidegger and Theology’, 1964). H. Jonas, “Heidegger and Theology”, Review of Metaphysics 18 (1964), 207–233; “Gnosticism, Existentialism, and Nihilism”, epilogue to The Gnostic Religion (2nd ed. 1963)
Evidence: AI draft
Martin Heidegger › 1889–1976

Works

1979The Imperative of Responsibility
A new imperative for technological civilization.

Position

Jonas began as a historian of Gnosticism, then developed a philosophy of the organism: even the simplest metabolism shows a freedom and inwardness that link all life to the human mind. His best-known work, The Imperative of Responsibility, starts from the observation that modern technology has given human action a reach that traditional ethics never foresaw: our deeds affect the whole biosphere and distant generations. Jonas therefore formulated a new imperative: “Act so that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life on earth.” Since the long-term consequences are uncertain, he recommended a “heuristics of fear,” giving more weight to the bad prognosis than to the good. His work became a foundation of environmental and bioethics.

Life & context

Jonas was born in Mönchengladbach in 1903 and studied with Husserl, Heidegger and the theologian Rudolf Bultmann; his dissertation was on Gnosticism. In 1933 he emigrated to England and Palestine and fought in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army; his mother was murdered in Auschwitz. From 1955 he taught at the New School for Social Research in New York; in 1987 he received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.