Mortality and Morality: A Search for Good After Auschwitz

Hans Jonas (1903-93)--German Jew, pupil of Heidegger and Bultmann, lifelong friend and colleague of Hannah Arendt at the New School for Social Research--was one of the most prominent thinkers of his generation. This book both consummates and demonstrates the basic thrust of Jonas's thought: the inseparability of ethics and metaphysics, the reality of values at the center of being.

List of contents

Part 1 The need of reason - grounding an imperative of responsibility in the phenomenon of life: evolution and freedom - on the continuity among life-forms; tool, image and grave - on what is beyond the animal in man; the burden and blessing of mortality; toward an ontological grounding of an ethics for the future. Part 2 A luxury of reason - theological speculations after Auschwitz: immortality and the modern temper; the concept of God after Auschwitz - a Jewish voice; is faith still possible? Memories of Rudolf Bultmann and reflections on the philosophical aspects of his work; matter, mind and creation - cosmological evidence and cosmogonic speculation.

About the author

HANS JONAS (1903-1993) was a German Jew, pupil of Heidegger and Bultmann, lifelong friend and colleague of Hannah Arendt at the New School for Social Research, and one of the most prominent thinkers of his generation. The range of his topics never obscures their unifying thread: that our mortality is at the root of our moral responsibility to safeguard humanity's future.

Summary

A selected anthology of Hans Jonas's later essays which offers a comprehensive survey of the philosopher's contributions.

Product details

• Authors: Hans Jonas
• Assisted by: Lawrence Vogel (Editor), Lawrence C. Vogel (Editor)
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.07.1996
• EAN: 9780810112865
• ISBN: 978-0-8101-1286-5
• No. of pages: 218
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 227 mm x 17 mm
• Weight: 386 g
• Series: Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy; Studies in Phenomenology and E; Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy; Studies in Phenomenology and E
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Essays, feuilletons, literary criticism, interviews; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works