Hans Jonas (/ˈjoʊnɑːs/;German:[ˈjoːnas]; 10 May 1903 – 5 February 1993) was a German and American philosopher. From 1955 to 1976 he was the Alvin Johnson Professor of Philosophy at theNew School for Social Research in New York City.
Birth house of Hans Jonas in MönchengladbachIn front of the house, twoStolpersteine were installed in 2008. The left one commemorates the philosopher's mother Rosa Jonas, murdered in Auschwitz in 1942.
When Heidegger joined theNazi Party in 1933, it may have disturbed Jonas, as he was Jewish and an activeZionist. In 1964 Jonas repudiated his mentor Heidegger for his affiliation with the Nazis.[6]
He left Germany for England in 1933, and from England he moved to Palestine in 1934. There he met Lore Weiner, to whom he became betrothed. In 1940 he enlisted in theBritish Army. He served in theJewish Brigade and was sent to Italy, 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, in particularphilosophy of biology, that would form the basis of his later publications on the subject. 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 theAuschwitz concentration camp. Having heard this, he refused to live in Germany again. He returned to Palestine and took part in the1948 Arab–Israeli War. Jonas taught briefly at theHebrew University of Jerusalem before moving to North America. In 1950 he left for Canada, teaching atCarleton University. From there he moved in 1955 toNew York City, where he was to live for the rest of his life. He was a fellow of the Hastings Center and Professor of Philosophy atNew School for Social Research from 1955 to 1976 (where he was Alvin Johnson Professor). From 1982 to 1983 Jonas held theEric Voegelin Visiting Professorship at theUniversity of Munich.[7] He died at his home in New Rochelle, New York, on 5 February 1993, aged 89.[8]
Jonas's writings were very influential in different spheres. For example,TheGnostic Religion, based on his early research on thegnosis and first published in 1958, was for many years the standard work in English on the subject ofGnosticism.The Imperative of Responsibility (German 1979,English 1984) centers on social and ethical problems created bytechnology. Jonas insists that human survival depends on our efforts to care for our planet and its future. He formulated a new and distinctive suprememoral imperative: "Act so that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life".[9]
WhileThe Imperative of Responsibility has been credited with catalyzing theenvironmental movement in Germany, his workThePhenomenon of Life (1966) forms the philosophical undergirding of one major school ofbioethics in America.Murray Bookchin andLeon Kass both referred to Hans Jonas's work as major, or primary, inspiration. Heavily influenced byMartin Heidegger but also one of Heidegger's most outspoken philosophical critics,[10]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 andmoral human nature.[11] On the question ofabortion, Jonas was against it, saying, "a mother-to-be is more than her individualself. She carries a human trust, and we should not make abortion merely a matter of her own private wish", society had a "social responsibility" to pregnant mothers, and "To give this mission[motherhood] over completely to individualchoice oversteps the order of nature."[12]
His writing on the history ofGnosticism revisits terrain covered by earlier standard works on the subject such asErnesto Buonaiuti'sLo gnosticismo: storia di antiche lotte religiose (1907), interpreting the religion from a unique version ofexistentialist philosophical viewpoint that also informed his later contributions.[10] He was one of the first philosophers to concern himself with ethical questions in biological science.[13] Jonas's career is generally divided into three periods defined by his three primary works, but in reverse order: studies of gnosticism, studies of philosophical biology, and ethical studies.[14][11]
The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God & the Beginnings of Christianity (Boston: Beacon Press, 1958)ISBN0-8070-5801-7 Second, enlarged edition, 1963. Third edition, 2001. (N.B. The "Introduction to the Third Edition" is in fact a talk given by Jonas in 1974.)
The Phenomenon of Life: Toward a Philosophical Biology (New York, Harper & Row, 1966) OCLC 373876 (Evanston, Ill. : Northwestern University Press, 2001).ISBN0-8101-1749-5
The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of Ethics for the Technological Age (translation ofDas Prinzip Verantwortung) trans. Hans Jonas and David Herr (1979).ISBN0-226-40597-4 (University of Chicago Press, 1984)ISBN0-226-40596-6
Philosophical Essays: From Ancient Creed to Technological Man (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974)ISBN0-226-40591-5
"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 the Good After Auschwitz ed. Lawrence Vogel (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1996).ISBN0-8101-1286-8
With Stuart F Spicker:Organism, medicine, and metaphysics : essays in honor of Hans Jonas on his 75th birthday, May 10, 1978ISBN90-277-0823-1
On faith, reason and responsibility (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1978. New edition: Institute for Antiquity and Christianity,Claremont Graduate School, 1981.)ISBN0-940440-00-8
Technik, Medizin und Ethik — Zur Praxis des Prinzips Verantwortung — Frankfurt a.M. : Suhrkamp, 1985 —ISBN3-518-38014-1 (On Technology, Medicine and Ethics: On the Practice of the Imperative of Responsibility)
Das Prinzip Verantwortung: Versuch einer Ethik für die technologische Zivilisation (Frankfurt am Main : Insel-Verlag, 1979).ISBN3-458-04907-X
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.ISBN3-458-04758-1
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, 1994.
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 entitledAugustin und das paulinische Freiheitsproblem. Eine philosophische Studie zum pelagianischen Streit, with an introduction by J. M. Robinson. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1965.
"The Right to Die."Hastings Center Report 8, number 4 (1978): 31–36.
"Straddling the Boundaries of Theory and Practice: Recombinant DNA Research as a Case of Action in the Process of Inquiry." InRecombinant 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." InEthics 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 Niels Bohr." InThe 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, number 1 (1987): 1–13.
"The Consumer's Responsibility." InEcology and Ethics. A Report from the Melbu conference, 18–23 July 1990, edited by Audun Øfsti, 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, number 4 (1994): 812–32.
"Wissenschaft as Personal Experience [brief memoir],"The Hastings Center report 32:4 (Jul–Aug 2002): 27–35ISSN0093-0334
"Materialism and the Theory of Organism."University of Toronto Quarterly, 21, 1 (1951): 39–52.
"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 inThe Phenomenon of Life)[15]
"Immortality and the Modern Temper: The Ingersoll Lecture, 1961"The Harvard Theological Review, volume 55, number 1 (January 1962), pp. 1–20. (also inThe 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 (October 1969), pp. 315–329
"Freedom of Scientific Inquiry and the Public Interest,"The Hastings Center Report, volume 6, number 4 (August 1976), pp. 15–17.
^Theresa Morris,Hans Jonas's Ethic of Responsibility: From Ontology to Ecology, SUNY Press, 2013, p. 166.
^Jonas, 1974.Philosophical Essays: From Ancient Creed to Technological Man. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. As cited from"CLONING HUMAN BEINGS"(PDF).bioethicsarchive.georgetown.edu. Archived from the original on 26 April 2021. Retrieved11 December 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^abH. Jonas, "Wissenschaft as Personal Experience,"The Hastings Center report 32:4 (Jul–Aug 2002), 30.
^Wellistony C. Viana,Das Prinzip Verantwortung von Hans Jonas aus der Perspektive des objektiven Idealismus der Intersubjektivität von Vittorio Hösle, Königshausen & Neumann, 2010, p. 25.
^abMichael Hackl,Freiheit als Prinzip. Schellings absoluter Idealismus der Mitwissenschaft als Antwort auf die metaphysischen und ethischen Problemhorizonte bei Hans Jonas, Vittorio Hösle und Klaus Michael Meyer-Abich. Göttingen: V+R press, 2020, 57-99.
Troster, Lawrence. "Hans Jonas and the Concept of God after the Holocaust,"Conservative Judaism (volume 55:4, Summer 2003)
Strachan Donnelley "Hans Jonas, 1903–1993 [Obituary],"The Hastings Center Report 23:2 (March–April 1993), p. 12.
Herskowitz, Daniel M.; Lapidot, Elad; Wiese, Christian, eds. (2025).Hans Jonas : the early years. New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.ISBN9781032575681.
Strachan Donnelley, "Bioethical Troubles: Animal Individuals and Human Organisms," p. 21.
Lawrence Vogel, "Does Environmental Ethics Need a Metaphysical Grounding?", p. 30.x
Christian Schütze, "The Political and Intellectual Hans Jonas," p. 40.
"Not Compassion Alone: On Euthanasia and Ethics" (interview with Jonas), p. 44.
Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Christian Wiese, eds.,The Legacy of Hans Jonas: Judaism and the Phenomenon of Life (Brill, 2008).ISBN90-04-16722-6,Table of contents.
Michael Schwartz and Osborne Wiggins, "Psychosomatic Medicine and the Philosophy of Life."Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine 2010, 5:2 (21 January 2010).http://www.peh-med.com/content/5/1/2
Wiese, Christian.The Life and Thought of Hans Jonas: Jewish Dimensions. Brandeis, 2010.
Wolin, Richard (2001).Heidegger's children : Hannah Arendt, Karl Löwith, Hans Jonas, and Herbert Marcuse. Princeton: Princeton University Press.ISBN0691070199.
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