Fritz Jahr’s Bioethical Imperative

Its Origin, Point, and Influence

Sažetak

In this article I attempt to interpret the particular sense in which Fritz Jahr employs his
Bioethical Imperative. I explain not only the particular way in which it is related to Van
Rensselaer Potter’s notion of Bioethics but also the sense in which it has been influenced by
Kant’s Categorical Imperative. As it turns out, Jahr’s Bioethical Imperative not only is not a
reversal or a criticism of Kant’s Categorical Imperative but, on the contrary, is an extension
of it, something which brings out the deep similarities which underlie the views of the two
thinkers