Hans Jonas

Lewis Coyne is Associate Lecturer and Honorary Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Exeter, UK, and co-editor of Moral Enhancement: Critical Perspectives (2018).

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroductionI. Jonas’s Philosophical ProjectII. The Man and His Work1. The Gnosticism of ModernityI. The Gnostic PrincipleII. Nihilism, Ancient and ModernIII. The Scientific RevolutionIV. The Age of Technology V. The Baconian Ideal2. The Philosophy of Life I: The OrganismI. Dualism, Materialism, Integral MonismII. The Phenomenological Approach to Organismic BeingIII. Self-OrganizationIV. BehaviourV. The Nisus of Being3. The Philosophy of Life II: The Scala NaturaeI. Aristotle After DarwinII. PlantsIII. AnimalsIV. HumansV. Being is One4. Values and the GoodI. The Axiological Dimension of TeleologyII. Species and the BiosphereIII. The Good of BeingIV. Moral Traditions5. New Dimensions of ResponsibilityI. Ethics, Old and NewII. The Temporal HorizonIII. Responsibility for the ‘Idea of Man’IV. Global and Intergenerational EthicsV. Duties to Non-Human Life6. The Politics of NatureI. The Nature of PoliticsII. New Rules for Collective ActionIII. Farewell to Utopia?IV. Rival Interpretations of Jonas’s PoliticsV. Freedom and the Republic7. Toward a Richer BioethicsI. The Dignity of the PersonII. Human Beings as MeansIII. The Threshold of Life and DeathIV. The Future of the Human ConditionConclusionI. Humanity: The Shepherd of BeingsII. Carrying the FireNotesBibliographyIndex

Coyne has delivered an ambitious account of the multiple strains of Jonas’s thinking. While it is clear that Coyne deems several portions of Jonas’s thought as offering less than satisfactory answers, he also demonstrates that Jonas’s thinking does impressively counteract the most dangerous tendencies of modern Gnosticism by reminding us of the fateful balance we hold with nature.