Hans Jonas’ integrative philosophy of life as a foothold for integrative bioethics

Authors

  • Hrvoje Jurić

Keywords:

Hans Jonas, integrative bioethics, life, nature, human, responsibility, philosophy, ethics, biology, theology

Abstract

European approach to bioethical problems emphasizes, among others, a need for the widened
and deepened consideration of the very notion of life, which should be taken in account
when speaking about ethical dimensions of manipulation with the life at diff erent levels. Th is
tendency could be traced in the works of Fritz Jahr, Albert Schweitzer, Georg Picht, Klaus Michael Meyer-Abich and especially Hans Jonas (1903–1993). In that sense, we should take into
consideration not only Jonas’ ethics of responsibility, developed in the late phase of his life, but
also his long-term research of Gnostic religion and thought, as well as his attempt to establish the
philosophical biology as a new philosophy of the human, nature and life. Jonas developed the
integrative philosophy of life in which centre stands ethically connotated philosophy of nature,
based both on the results of contemporary natural sciences and theological speculations. It
shows us clearly what pluriperspectivity and integrativity in bioethics actually mean, because
it is far from any reductionism and tries to include diff erent scientifi c and non-scientifi c perspectives, off ering at the same time a platform for their dialogical mediation.

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Published

2022-08-31

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2011): Jahr - Annual of the Department of Social Sciences and Medical Humanities

Section

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