Hans Jonas

• 1. A Jewish Boy In Mönchengladbach

  ›

  Hans Jonas was born in the German city of Mönchengladbach on the 10th of May 1903. He grew up within a Jewish family during a time when European society was shifting toward radical nationalism. His early education took him to several universities including Freiburg, Berlin, and Heidelberg before he settled at Marburg. There he earned his Doctorate of Philosophy in 1928 with a thesis titled Der Begriff der Gnosis. Martin Heidegger directed this doctoral work while Edmund Husserl and Rudolf Bultmann served as other academic advisors. The young scholar formed a lifelong friendship with Hannah Arendt who pursued her own PhD at the same institution.

• 2. The Soldier Who Refused To Return

  ›

  Jonas left Germany for England in 1933 after Heidegger joined the Nazi Party. He moved again to Palestine in 1934 where he met Lore Weiner and became betrothed. In 1940 he returned to Europe to join the British Army which had arranged a special brigade for German Jews fighting against Hitler. He was sent to Italy and later moved into Germany during the final phase of the war. This return fulfilled his promise that he would only come back as part of the victorious army. Immediately after the war ended he went to Mönchengladbach to search for his mother but found she had been sent to the gas chambers in Auschwitz concentration camp. She was murdered there in 1942. Having heard this news he refused to live in Germany again.

• 3. The Standard Work On Gnosticism

  ›

  His early research on gnosis resulted in a book published in 1958 titled The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God & the Beginnings of Christianity. This work became the standard text in English on the subject of Gnosticism for many years. Jonas interpreted the ancient religion from a unique existentialist philosophical viewpoint that also informed his later contributions. Earlier standard works like Ernesto Buonaiuti's Lo gnosticismo: storia di antiche lotte religiose from 1907 covered similar terrain. The second enlarged edition appeared in 1963 while a third edition came out in 2001 with an introduction based on a talk given by Jonas in 1974.

  1

• 4. Synthesizing Matter And Mind

  ›

  Jonas wrote The Phenomenon of Life which was first published in 1966. This book attempts to synthesize the philosophy of matter with the philosophy of mind. It produces a rich existential understanding of biology arguing for a simultaneously material and moral human nature. Murray Bookchin and Leon Kass both referred to Hans Jonas's work as major or primary inspiration for their own bioethical theories. He was one of the first philosophers to concern himself with ethical questions in biological science. His writing heavily influenced Martin Heidegger but also served as one of Heidegger's most outspoken philosophical criticisms.

  7

• 5. The Imperative Of Responsibility

  ›

  His book The Imperative of Responsibility centers on social and ethical problems created by technology. The German version appeared in 1979 while the English translation followed in 1984. Jonas insisted that human survival depends on our efforts to care for our planet and its future. He formulated a new supreme moral imperative stating Act so that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life. While this work has been credited with catalyzing the environmental movement in Germany it also forms the philosophical undergirding of one major school of bioethics in America.

  64

• 6. Teaching In North America

  ›

  Jonas taught briefly at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before moving to North America. In 1950 he left for Canada teaching at Carleton University. From there he moved in 1955 to New York City where he lived for the rest of his life. He became the Alvin Johnson Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research from 1955 until 1976. He was also a fellow of the Hastings Center. From 1982 to 1983 Jonas held the Eric Voegelin Visiting Professorship at the University of Munich. He died at his home in New Rochelle, New York on the 5th of February 1993 aged 89.