Hans Jonas

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Hans Jonas

Hans Jonas (May 10, 1903 – February 5, 1993) was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
-born philosopher who was, from 1955 to 1976, Alvin Johnson Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City

New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
.

Jonas' writings were very influential in different spheres. For example, The Gnostic Religion, first published in 1958, was for many years the standard work in English on the subject of Gnosticism

Gnosticism

Gnosticism refers to diverse, syncretistic religious movements in antiquity consisting of various belief systems generally united in the teaching that humans are divine souls trapped in a Nature created by an imperfect god, the demiurge; this being is frequently identified with the Abrahamic God, and is contrasted with a superior entity, ref...
. The Imperative of Responsibility (German

German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
1979, English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
1984) centers on social and ethical problems created by technology

Technology

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Encyclopedia

Hans Jonas (May 10, 1903 – February 5, 1993) was a German

Germany

New York City

Gnosticism

German language

English language

Technology

Technology is a broad concept that deals with an animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects an animal species' ability to control and adapt to its Natural environment....
. Jonas insists that human survival depends on our efforts to care for our planet and its future. He formulated a new and distinctive supreme principle of morality: "Act so that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life".

While The Imperative of Responsibility has been credited with catalyzing the environmental movement in Germany, his work The Phenomenon of Life (1966) forms the philosophical undergirding of one major school of bioethics

Bioethics

Bioethics is the philosophical study of the ethics controversies brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, philosophy, and theology....
in America. Murray Bookchin

Murray Bookchin

Murray Bookchin was an United States Libertarian socialism, political and social philosopher, speaker and writer. For much of his life he called himself an anarchist, although as early as 1995 he privately renounced his identification with the anarchist movement....
and Leon Kass

Leon Kass

Leon Richard Kass is an United States physician, educator, and public intellectual, best known as an opponent of human cloning, embryonic stem cell research, and euthanasia; as a critic of unrestrained technological progress; and for his controversial tenure as chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics from 2001 to 2005....
both referred to Hans Jonas's work as major, or primary, inspiration. Heavily influenced by Heidegger

Martin Heidegger

Martin Heidegger was an influential Germany Philosophy. His best known book, Being and Time, is generally considered to be one of the most important philosophical works of the 20th century....
, The Phenomenon of Life attempts to synthesize the philosophy of matter with the philosophy of mind, producing a rich existential understanding of biology, which ultimately argues for a simultaneously material and moral human nature.

His writing on Gnosticism

Gnosticism

Existentialism

Existentialism is a term that has been applied to the work of a number of nineteenth and twentieth century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, took the human subject — not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual and his or her conditions of existence — as a starting point...
philosophical viewpoint. Jonas was the first author to write a detailed history of ancient Gnosticism. He was also one of the first philosophers to concern himself with ethical questions in biological science.

Jonas's career is generally divided into three periods defined by the three works just mentioned, but in reverse order: studies of gnosticism, studies of philosophical biology, and ethical studies.

Biography

Jonas was born in Mönchengladbach

Mönchengladbach

M?nchengladbach is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located west of the Rhine half way between D?sseldorf and the Netherlands border....
, on May 10, 1903. He studied philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind, and language....
and theology

Theology

Theology is the study of the existence or attributes of a deity or gods, or more generally the study of religion or spirituality. It is sometimes contrasted with religious studies: theology is understood as the study of religion from an internal perspective , and religious studies as the study of religion from an external perspective....
in Freiburg

Freiburg

Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-W?rttemberg, Germany, in the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest. It straddles the Dreisam river, on the foothills of the Schlossberg....
, Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the Capital of Germany city and one of sixteen States of Germany of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is the country's largest city....
and Heidelberg

Heidelberg

Heidelberg is a city in Baden-W?rttemberg, Germany. As of 2006, over 140,000 people live within the city's area. The town of Heidelberg is an administrative district of its own....
, and finally achieved his Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph.D. or PhD for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", is an postgraduate academic degree awarded by University....
at Marburg

Marburg

Marburg is a city in Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district. Its population is 78,701, and its geographical position is ....
where he studied under Edmund Husserl

Edmund Husserl

Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl was a philosophy who is deemed the founder of phenomenology . He broke with the positivist orientation of the science and philosophy of his day, believing that experience is the source of all knowledge, while at the same time he elaborated critiques of psychologism and historicism....
, Martin Heidegger

Martin Heidegger

Rudolf Bultmann

Rudolf Karl Bultmann was a Germany theology of Lutheran background, who was for three decades professor of New Testament studies at the University of Marburg....
. In Marburg he met Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt was an influential Germany-Jewish political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she always refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theory because her work centers on the fact that "men, not Man, live on...
who was also pursuing her PhD. there, and the two of them were to become friends for the rest of their lives.

In 1933, Heidegger joined the German Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, officially National Socialism , refers to the ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Workers? Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945....
party, which Jonas took personally as he was of Jewish descent and an active Zionist. The fact that the great philosopher was capable of such political folly made Jonas doubt the value of philosophy. He left Germany for England

England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
in the same year, and from England he moved to Palestine in 1934. There he met Lore Weiner, to whom he became betrothed. In 1940 he returned to Europe to join the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the Army branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdoms of Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707....
, who had been arranging a special brigade for German Jews wanting to fight against Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born Germany politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party....
. He was sent to Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
, and in the last phase of the war moved into Germany. Thus, he kept his promise that he would return only as a soldier in the victorious army. In this time he wrote several letters to Lore about philosophy as well as love. They finally married in 1943.

Immediately after the war he returned to Mönchengladbach to search for his mother, but found that she had been sent to the gas chambers in the Auschwitz concentration camp

Auschwitz concentration camp

Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest of Nazi Germany's Nazi concentration campss. Its remains are located in Poland approximately 50 kilometers west of Krak?w and 286 kilometers south of Warsaw....
. Having heard this, he refused to live in Germany again. So he returned to Palestine and took part in Israel

Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
's war of independence in 1948. However, he felt that his destiny was not to live as a Zionist, but to teach philosophy. Jonas taught briefly at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel's oldest university.The First Board of Governors included Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Martin Buber, and Chaim Weizmann....
before moving to North America. In 1950 he left for Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
, teaching at Carleton University

Carleton University

Carleton University is an international, comprehensive university located in Canada's capital of Ottawa, Ontario. Founded as a small college in 1942, Carleton now offers over 65 programs in a diverse range of disciplines, including public affairs, Carleton School of Journalism,film studies, engineering, high technology, and international stud...
, and from there moved to New York City

New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
in 1955 where he was to live for the rest of his life. He was a fellow of the Hastings Center and Professor of Philosophy at New School for Social Research 1955 to 1976 (where he was Alvin Johnson Professor). From 1982 to 1983 Jonas held the Eric Voegelin

Eric Voegelin

Eric Voegelin, born Erich Hermann Wilhelm V?gelin, was a political philosopher. He was born in Cologne, Germany, and educated in political science at the University of Vienna....
Visiting Professorship at the University of Munich.He died at his home in New Rochelle, N.Y., on February 5, 1993, aged 89.

Hans Jonas personal position on Gnosticism

Jonas describes the typical Gnostic use of biblical material as follows

Works

English books

The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God & the Beginnings of Christianity (Boston: Beacon Press, 1958) ISBN 0-8070-5801-7
The Phenomenon of Life: Toward a Philosophical Biology (New York, Harper & Row, 1966) OCLC 373876 (Evanston, Ill. : Northwestern University Press, 2001). ISBN 0810117495
The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of Ethics for the Technological Age (trans. of Das Prinzip Verantwortung) trans. Hans Jonas and David Herr (1979). ISBN 0-226-40597-4 (University of Chicago Press, 1984) ISBN 0226405966

Philosophical Essays: From Ancient Creed to Technological Man (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974) ISBN 0226405915

"Technology and Responsibility: Reflections on the New Tasks of Ethics," Social Research 15 (Spring 1973).
"Jewish and Christian Elements in Philosophy: their Share in the Emergence of the Modern Mind"
"Seventeenth Century and After: The Meaning of the Scientific and Technological Revolution"
"Socioeconomic Knowledge and Ignorance of Goals"
"Philosophical Reflections on Experimenting with Human Subjects"
"Against the Stream: Comments on the Definition and Redefinition of Death"
"Biological Engineering—A Preview"
"Contemporary Problems in Ethics from a Jewish Perspective"
"Biological Foundations of Individuality"
"Spinoza and the Theory of Organism"
"Sight and Thought: A Review of 'Visual Thinking.'"
"Change and Permanence: On the Possibility of Understanding History."
"The Gnostic Syndrome: Typology of Its Thought, Imagination, and Mood."
"The Hymn of the Pearl: Case Study of a Symbol, and the Claims for a Jewish Origin of Gnosticism."
"Myth and Mysticism: A Study of Objectification and Interiorization in Religious Thought."
"Origen's Metaphysics of Free Will, Fall, and Salvation: a 'Divine Comedy' of the Universe."
"The Soul in Gnosticism and Plotinus."
"The Abyss of the Will: Philosophical Meditations on the Seventh Chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans."

Mortality and Morality: A Search for Good After Auschwitz ed. Lawrence Vogel (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1996). ISBN 0810112868
With Stuart F Spicker: Organism, medicine, and metaphysics : essays in honor of Hans Jonas on his 75th birthday, May 10, 1978 ISBN 9027708231
On faith, reason and responsibility (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1978. New edition: Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont Graduate School, 1981.) ISBN 0940440008
Memoirs (Brandeis University Press, 2008) ISBN 9781584656395

English monographs

Immortality and the modern temper : the Ingersoll lecture, 1961 (Cambridge : Harvard Divinity School, 1962) OCLC 26072209 (included in The Phenomenon of Life)
Heidegger and theology (1964) OCLC 14975064 (included in The Phenomenon of Life)
Ethical aspects of experimentation with human subjects (Boston:American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1969) OCLC 19884675.

German

Gnosis und spätantiker Geist (1–2, 1934–1954)
Technik, Medizin und Ethik — Zur Praxis des Prinzips Verantwortung — Frankfurt a.M. : Suhrkamp, 1985 — ISBN 3-518-38014-1 ('On technology, medicine and ethics' — On the practice of the imperative of Responsibility.' Not translated into English yet.)
Das Prinzip Verantwortung: Versuch einer Ethik für die technologische Zivilisation (Frankfurt am Main : Insel-Verlag, 1979). ISBN 345804907X
Erinnerungen. Nach Gesprächen mit Rachel Salamander, ed. Ch. Wiese. Frankfurt am Mein-Leipzig: Insel Verlag, 2003.
Macht oder Ohnmacht der Subjektivität? Das Leib-Seele-Problem im Vorfeld des Prinzips Verantwortung. Frankfurt am Main: Insel, 1981, and then Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1987. ISBN 3458047581
Erkenntnis und Verantwortung, Gespräch mit Ingo Hermann in der Reihe “Zeugen des Jahrhunderts”, Edited by I. Hermann. Göttingen: Lamuv, 1991.
Philosophische Untersuchungen und metaphysische Vermutungen. Frankfurt am Main: Insel, 1992, and then Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1997.
Organismus und Freiheit. Ansätze zu einer philosophischen Biologie. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1973.
Augustin und das paulinische Freiheitsproblem. Ein philosophischer Beitrag zur Genesis der christlich-abendländischen Freiheitsidee, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1930. Second edition entitled Augustin und das paulinische Freiheitsproblem. Eine philosophische Studie zum pelagianischen Streit, with an introduction by J. M. Robinson. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1965.

French

Le concept de Dieu après Auschwitz ISBN 2869307691
Evolution et liberté ISBN 2743605804
Le Droit de mourir ISBN 2743601043
With Sabine Cornille and Philippe Ivernel: Pour une éthique du futur ISBN 2743602902
Une éthique pour la nature ISBN 2220047954
With Sylvie Courtine-Denamy: Entre le néant et l'éternité ISBN 2701119235

Selected papers

"The Right to Die." Hastings Center Report 8, no. 4 (1978): 31–36.
"Straddling the Boundaries of Theory and Practice: Recombinant DNA Research as a Case of Action in the Process of Inquiry." In Recombinant DNA: Science, Ethics and Politics, edited by J. Richards, 253–71. New York: Academic Press, 1978.
"Toward a Philosophy of Technology." Hastings Center Report 9 (1979): 34–43.
"The Heuristics of Fear." In Ethics in an Age of Pervasive Technology, edited by Melvin Kranzberg, 213–21. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1980.
"Parallelism and Complementarity: The Psycho-Physical Problem in Spinoza and in the Succession of Neils Bohr." In The Philosophy of Baruch Spinoza, edited by Richard Kennington, 121–30. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of the Americas Press, 1980.
"Reflections on Technology, Progress and Utopia." Social Research 48 (1981): 411–55.
"Technology as a Subject for Ethics." Social Research 49 (1982): 891–98.
"Is Faith Still Possible? Memories of Rudolf Bultmann and Reflections on the Philosophical Aspects of His Work." Harvard Theological Review 75 (1982): 1–23.
"Ontological Grounding of a Political Ethics: On the Metaphysics of Commitment to the Future of Man." Graduate Faculty Philosophical Journal 10, no. 1 (1984): 47–62.
"Ethics and Biogenetic Art." Social Research 52 (1985): 491–504.
"The Concept of God after Auschwitz: A Jewish Voice." Journal of Religion 67, no. 1 (1987): 1–13.
"The Consumer's Responsibility." In Ecology and Ethics. A Report from the Melbu conference, 18–23 July 1990, edited by Audun 0fsti, 215–18. Trondheim: Nordland Akademi for Kunst og Vitenskap, 1992.
"The Burden and Blessing of Mortality." Hastings Center Report 22, no. 1 (1992): 34–40.
"Philosophy at the End of the Century: A Survey of Its Past and Future." Social Research 61, no. 4 (1994): 812–32.
"Wissenschaft as Personal Experience [brief memoir]," The Hastings Center report 32:4 (Jul–Aug 2002): 27–35 ISSN 0093-0334
“Materialism and the Theory of Organism.” University of Toronto Quarterly, 21, 1 (1951): 39–52.

Other papers

"Causality and Perception," The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 47, No. 11 (May 25, 1950), pp. 319–324
"The Nobility of Sight," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 14, No. 4 (Jun., 1954), pp. 507–519. (also in The Phenomenon of Life)
"Immortality and the Modern Temper: The Ingersoll Lecture, 1961" The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 55, No. 1 (Jan., 1962), pp. 1–20. (also in The Phenomenon of Life)
"The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics," The Journal of Religion, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Oct., 1962), pp. 262–273.
"Myth and Mysticism: A Study of Objectification and Interiorization in Religious Thought," The Journal of Religion, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Oct., 1969), pp. 315–329
"Freedom of Scientific Inquiry and the Public Interest," The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 6, No. 4 (Aug., 1976), pp. 15–17.

Hans Jonas

Biography

Hans Jonas personal position on Gnosticism

Works

English books

English monographs

German

French

Selected papers

Other papers

Further reading

See also

External links