The principle of responsibility

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The principle of responsibility is the title of a book by Hans Jonas that appeared in 1979 and is considered to be hismain ethical work. In it, Jonas develops an “ ethics for technological civilization ”. This consists in the avoidance of incalculable risks in ordernot to endangerthe existence of humanity as a whole, as well as the recognition of the proper rights of the whole of nature , for which humans are responsible due to their possibilities of action. The title of the work can bereadas an allusion to and contradiction to Ernst Bloch's The Principle of Hope , with which Jonas dealt critically.

Theses and structure of the book

The book begins with an analysis of the changed nature of human behavior under the conditions of modern technology . Jonas advocates the thesis that the classical and traditional ethics no longer do justice to the changed conditions. The principle of previous ethics is a concentration on the immediate area of ​​human responsibility (e.g. in the maxim of charity ). Responsibility towards past and future generations, or towards foreign and distant cultures, was not an issue, since premodern technology did not have such a scope for action in space and time. With the change in technology, the ethics must be expanded to "love distant". Against this background, Jonas formulates a new ethical imperative , based on Kant , which is also known as the " ecological imperative":

"Act in such a way that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of real human life on earth."

- The principle of responsibility

Then Jonas deals with the “ ideal and real knowledge” of every future ethic . Since it will hardly be possible to obtain certainty in assessing the complex consequences of technology , according to the “ heuristic of fear”, the poorer prognosis is to be preferred to the better one, in order to avoid the temptation to weigh down and to reduce the amount of damage (up to the potential extinction of mankind, for example ) to be offset against the probability of damage. Through negative visions of the future, humans can also experience what would be at stake in the event of unchecked progress in technical civilization and thus recognize what is human about what must be preserved.

Jonas assumes that mankind has a duty to exist : since man is actually responsible for his actions, he is also responsible for the existence of beings with the ability to take responsibility. Thus, a collective suicide of humanity should be ethically rejected. Jonas would like to expand the Kantian idea of ​​a foundation of ethics through the character of a contract between autonomous subjects: According to Jonas, even non-autonomous, not actually rational beings can be subjects of rights, paradigmatic for this is the child who is entrusted to the care of the parents.

Jonas also tries to transcend the theory of a neutral nature beyond the realm of humans and future generations , drawing on the Aristotelian idea of ​​immanent expediency. He assumes an intrinsic value of life as a whole. Here Jonas can refer to his own studies on the philosophy of the organic.

The book closes with a critique of Marxist utopianism , as represented in particular by Ernst Bloch . However, Jonas suggests that the socialist countries will be in a better position than the capitalist states to revive the ascetic ideals necessary to cope with the ecological crisis.

Criticism and appreciation

It is thanks to Jonas to have pointed out the dangers of modern technology at an early stage and to be the first to develop a comprehensive philosophical answer. His assessment of Marxism , both theoretically and practically, as well as his discussion of a restriction of individual freedoms in favor of collective survival were discussed critically . Jonas' “ ontological ” justification of an intrinsic value of the organic and the intrinsic value of nature forms a controversial outsider position in contemporary environmental philosophy. Nevertheless, “The Responsibility Principle” remains an authoritative work of philosophy on questions of bioethics .

Work editions

  • Hans Jonas: The principle of responsibility: Attempting ethics for technological civilization. Frankfurt / M. 1979. New edition as Suhrkamp Taschenbuch, 1984 [u. ö.], ISBN 3-518-39992-6 . There are English, Italian, French, Dutch, Japanese and Ukrainian translations among others.

See also

literature

  • Dietrich Böhler (Ed.): Ethics for the Future - In Discourse with Hans Jonas . Beck, Munich 1994, ISBN 978-3-40638655-8
  • Anna Claas: Can the principle of responsibility still be defended? Another attempt to justify the principle of responsibility by Hans Jonas on the basis of the discursive and neo-pragmatic ethics of Albrecht Wellmer . Tectum, Marburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8288-2767-7
  • Roman Globokar: Responsibility for everything that lives: from Albert Schweitzer and Hans Jonas to a theological ethics of life . Gregorian & Biblical BookShop, Rome 2002, ISBN 978-8-87652945-0
  • Hans Jonas: Technology, Medicine and Ethics. To practice the principle of responsibility . Inselverlag, Frankfurt 1985, (Suhrkamp TB) ISBN 978-3-51838014-7
  • Frank Niggemeier: Duty to be cautious ?: Hans Jonas' natural philosophical ethics for technological civilization . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2002, ISBN 978-3-82602282-1
  • Otto-Peter Obermeier : Technological Age and the Problem of Ethics, in: Philosophisches Jahrbuch 88 (1981) 426-441 (book review).
  • Jörg Schubert: The "principle of responsibility" as a constitutional legal principle: legal philosophical and constitutional considerations on the ethics of responsibility by Hans Jonas . Nomos, Baden-Baden 1998, ISBN 978-3-78905697-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Jonas: The principle of responsibility. An attempt at ethics for technological civilization , Frankfurt am Main 1979, p. 36.