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One of the most prominent thinkers of his generation, Hans Jonas
wrote on topics as diverse as the philosophy of biology, ethics,
social philosophy, cosmology, and Jewish theology -- always with a
view to understanding morality as the root of our moral
responsibility to safeguard humanity's future. A classic of
phenomenology and existentialism and arguably Jonas's greatest
work, The Phenomenon of Life sets forth a systematic and
comprehensive philosophy -- an existential interpretation of
biological facts laid out in support of Jonas's claim that mind is
prefigured throughout organic existence.
At the center of this philosophy is an attack on the fundamental
assumptions underlying modern philosophy since Descartes, primarily
dualism. Dissenting from the dualistic view of value as a human
projection onto nature, Jonas's critique affirms the classical view
that being harbors the good. In a brilliant synthesis of the
ancient and modern, Jonas draws upon existential philosophy to
justify core insights of the classical tradition. This critique
transcends the historical limits of its phenomenological
methodology and existential ethical stance to take its place among
the most scientifically nuanced contemporary accounts of moral
nature. It lays the foundation for an ethic of responsibility
grounded in an assignment by Being to protect the natural
environment that has allowed us to spring from it.
Hans Jonas, a pupil of Heidegger and a colleague of Hannah Arendt
at the New School for Social Research, was one of the most
prominent phenomenologists of his generation. This carefully chosen
anthology of Jonas's shorter writings - on topics from Jewish
philosophy to philosophy of religion to philosophy of biology and
social philosophy - reveals their range without obscuring their
central unifying thread: that as living, biological beings, we are
also beings who die, and who must consider the implications for
current and future ethical and social relations. Grounded in
Jonas's belief in the inseparability of ethics and metaphysics -
the reality of values at the centre of being - and shaped by his
experience as a Holocaust survivor, the deeply personal essays
""Mortality and morality"" arise from a Jewish thinker's attempt to
make sense of the Jewish experience in the twentieth century.
Lawrence Vogel's insightful introduction provides both historical
and philosophical contexts in which to understand the importance
and gravity of Jonas's thought.
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