Ethicist, philosopher, and theologian Hans Jonas was one of the first philosophers to write at length about the emerging questions of ethics in advanced biomedical practice. He sought a comprehensive philosophical interpretation of Gnosticism, and maintained that abortion is wrong, since the mother-to-be "carries a human trust"[1]. Jonas grew up in Germany and studied under Martin Heidegger and Edmund Husserl, then fled the Nazis and fought in the British Army against Germany in World War II. He later came to Canada and finally Manhattan, where he taught for two decades at the New School for Social Research. He made headlines when he was invited to a theological seminar to discuss Heidegger's teachings and its relation to Christianity, and from the podium decried his mentor's pro-Hitler stance during the Nazi era as at odds with the Biblical imperative to "do justice, and to love mercy and walk humbly with your God."
[1] Quoted in Time magazine, 1972: "A mother-to-be is more than her individual self. She carries a human trust, and we should not make abortion merely a matter of her own private wish." This conflicts with William R. LaFleur, Peripheralized in America: Hans Jonas as Philosopher and Bioethicist, presented at the University of Kyoto in 2009: "Jonas himself, as told to me by his wife, was no opponent of legalized abortion and he in fact publicly criticized the Vatican for its stand against contraception."
Father: Gustav Jonas
Mother: Rosa Horowitz Jonas (d. at Auschwitz)
Wife: Eleanore Weiner Jonas (m. 1943, three children)
Daughter: Ayalah Jonas Sorkin
Daughter: Gabrielle Jonas
Son: John Jonas
University: BS Philosophy, University of Freiburg (1925)
University: PhD Philosophy, University of Marburg (1928)
Teacher: Philosophy, Hebrew University (1948-50)
Teacher: Philosophy, Carleton University (1950-55)
Teacher: Philosophy, New School for Social Research (1955-57)
Professor: Philosophy, New School for Social Research (1957-76)
Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels 1987
American Philosophical Association
Naturalized US Citizen
German Ancestry
Author of books:
The Gnostic Religion (1958)
The Phenomenon of Life (1966)
Philosophical Essays (1974)
The Imperative of Responsibility (1979)
Mortality and Morality: A Search for the Good after Auschwitz (1996, posthumous)
Memoirs (2008, posthumous)
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