Description
Book SynopsisHans Jonas (19031993) was one of the most important German-Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. A student of Martin Heidegger and close friend of Hannah Arendt, Jonas advanced the fields of phenomenology and practical ethics in ways that are just beginning to be appreciated in the English-speaking world. Drawing here on unpublished and newly translated material, Lewis Coyne brings together for the first time in English Jonas's philosophy of life, ethic of responsibility, political theory, philosophy of technology and bioethics.
In Hans Jonas: Life, Technology and the Horizons of Responsibility, Coyne argues that the aim of Jonas's philosophy is to confront three critical issues inherent to modernity: nihilism, the ecological crisis and the transhumanist drive to biotechnologically enhance human beings. While these might at first appear disparate, for Jonas all follow from the materialist turn taken by Western thought from the 17th century onwards, and he therefore
Trade Review
Coyne has delivered an ambitious account of the multiple strains of Jonas’s thinking. While it is clear that Coyne deems several portions of Jonas’s thought as offering less than satisfactory answers, he also demonstrates that Jonas’s thinking does impressively counteract the most dangerous tendencies of modern Gnosticism by reminding us of the fateful balance we hold with nature. * Review of Metaphysics *
Well known within the areas of environmental philosophy, theology and bioethics, Jonas's overall contribution to philosophy has been somewhat overlooked in the English speaking world. Coyne offers an excellent comprehensive analysis of Jonas's contribution to philosophy, presenting his philosophy as a systematic and unified corpus of thought. A much welcome addition to the literature on this fascinating thinker, Coyne's book is essential reading for students and scholars wishing to familiarise themselves with Hans Jonas’s philosophy. * Darian Meacham, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Maastricht University, The Netherlands *
Table of Contents
Preface Acknowledgements Introduction I. Jonas’s Philosophical Project II. The Man and His Work 1. The Gnosticism of Modernity I. The Gnostic Principle II. Nihilism, Ancient and Modern III. The Scientific Revolution IV. The Age of Technology V. The Baconian Ideal 2. The Philosophy of Life I: The Organism I. Dualism, Materialism, Integral Monism II. The Phenomenological Approach to Organismic Being III. Self-Organization IV. Behaviour V. The Nisus of Being 3. The Philosophy of Life II: The Scala Naturae I. Aristotle After Darwin II. Plants III. Animals IV. Humans V. Being is One 4. Values and the Good I. The Axiological Dimension of Teleology II. Species and the Biosphere III. The Good of Being IV. Moral Traditions 5. New Dimensions of Responsibility I. Ethics, Old and New II. The Temporal Horizon III. Responsibility for the ‘Idea of Man’ IV. Global and Intergenerational Ethics V. Duties to Non-Human Life 6. The Politics of Nature I. The Nature of Politics II. New Rules for Collective Action III. Farewell to Utopia? IV. Rival Interpretations of Jonas’s Politics V. Freedom and the Republic 7. Toward a Richer Bioethics I. The Dignity of the Person II. Human Beings as Means III. The Threshold of Life and Death IV. The Future of the Human Condition Conclusion I. Humanity: The Shepherd of Beings II. Carrying the Fire Notes Bibliography Index
