Hans Jonas was a 20th century philosopher who - though little known in the popular American environmentalist movement - is a thinker we would do well to (re)discover.
One powerful quote by Jonas (a Jew, who also was a passionate philosopher who spent some time in Israel after fleeing Germany before WWII and ultimately settling in America) is:
"Act so that the effects of your actions are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life". This is the core of sustainability.
And another:
"It was once religion which threatened us with a last judgment at the end of days. It is now our tortured planet which predicts the arrival of such a day without any heavenly intervention. The late revelation... is the outcry of mute things themselves that we must pull together in curbing our powers over creation, lest we perish together on a wasteland of what was creation."
Haunting.
Some key works:
The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of Ethics for the Technological Age (1979
The Phenomenon of Life: Toward a Philosophical Biology (1966)
"The Outcry of Mute Things" can be found in Mortality and Morality (1996) pp. 201-202
There is a new book out which traces Jonas' Jewish influences: The Life and Thought of Hans Jonas: Jewish dimensions, by Christian Wiese.
I hope to get the book tomorrow.
Thanks for the lead on this book, Nina. I've located a copy and look forward to reading it soon.
ReplyDeleteLeslie
Tikkunknitter: I found that the Wiese book did not address environmental concerns much beyond the two quotes I cited. However, the first chapter of The Imperative of Responsibility is an extraordinary explanation of the new ethics that must engage humanity today, different from anything in the past, and how the religious voice and sensitivity, therefore, are essential to the environmental effort.
ReplyDeleteI am continuing to read Jonas - inspired by his vision, kindness, clarity and courage.