Imperative of Responsibility In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age

Hans Jonas here rethinks the foundations of ethics in light of the awesome transformations wrought by modern technology: the threat of nuclear war, ecological ravage, genetic engineering, and the like. Though informed by a deep reverence for human life, Jonas's ethics is grounded not in religion but in metaphysics, in a secular doctrine that makes explicit man's duties toward himself, his posterity, and the environment. Jonas offers an assessment of practical goals under present circumstances, ending with a critique of modern utopianism.

Hans Jonas here rethinks the foundations of ethics in light of the awesome transformations wrought by modern technology: the threat of nuclear war, ecological ravage, genetic engineering, and the like. Though informed by a deep reverence for human life, Jonas's ethics is grounded not in religion but in metaphysics, in a secular doctrine that makes explicit man's duties toward himself, his posterity, and the environment. Jonas offers an assessment of practical goals under present circumstances, ending with a critique of modern utopianism.

Hans Jonas was the Alvin Johnson Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the New School for Social Research. Among his many books are The Phenomenon of Life and Philosophical Essays, both published by the University of Chicago Press.

Preface

1. The Altered Nature of Human Action

I. The Example of Antiquity

II. Characteristics of Previous Ethics

III. New Dimensions of Responsibility

IV. Technology as the "Calling" of Mankind

V. Old and New Imperatives

VI. Earlier Forms of "Future-oriented" Ethics

VII. Man as an Object of Technology

VIII. The "Utopian" Dynamics of Technical Progress and the Excessive Magnitude of Responsibility

IX. The Ethical Vacuum

2. On Principles and Method

I. Ideal and Real Knowledge in the "Ethic of the Future"

II. Prevalence of the Bad over the Good Prognosis

III. The Element of Wager in Human Action

IV. The Duty to Ensure a Future

V. Being and Ought-to-Be

3. Concerning Ends and Their Status in Reality

I. The Hammer

II. The Court of Law

III. Walking

IV. The Digestive Organ

V. From Reality to Validity: From the Problem of Purpose to the Problem of Value

4. The Good, the "Ought," and Being: A Theory of Responsibility

I. Being and Ought-to-Be

II. Theory of Responsibility: First Distinctions

III. Theory of Responsibility: Parent and Statesman as Eminent Paradigms

IV. Theory of Responsibility: The Horizon of the Future

V. How Far Does Political Responsibility Extend into the Future?

VI. Why "Responsibility" Was Not Central in Former Ethical Theory

VII. Parent-Child Relation: The Archetype of Responsibility

5. Responsibility Today: Endangered Future and the Idea of Progress

I. The Future of Mankind and the Future of Nature

II. The Ominous Side of the Baconian Ideal

III. Is Marxism or Capitalism Better Fitted to Counter the Danger?

IV. Examining the Abstract Chances in the Concrete

V. The Utopia of the Coming "True Man"

VI. Utopia and the Idea of Progress

6. A Critique of Utopia and the Ethic of Responsibility

I. The Wretched of the Earth and World Revolution

II. Critique of Marxist Utopianism

III. From the Critique of Utopia to the Ethics of Responsibility

Appendix: Impotence or Power of Subjectivity

I. The Incompatibility Argument

II. The Epiphenomenalist Argument

III. "Epiphenomenalism" Voided by the Voiding of "Incompatibility"

IV. Quantum-Mechanical Review of the Proposed Solution

Notes

Index