The Life and Thought of Hans Jonas: Jewish Dimensions By
Christian Wiese Brandeis University Press, 292 pages, $50. Like
most things German, the philosophy of Hans Jonas is complicated.
But its main thrust can be summed up by its leading moral
imperative: “Act so that the effects of your action do not
destroy the future potential of [human] life on earth.” Jonas,
who died in 1993 at the age of 90, demanded that we be
responsible for the whole of creation, not just for our fellow
humans. He insisted that we be guided by the future, not only
those of our children and our children’s children, but of all
people and of the world that sustains them. Jonas was therefore
one of the more relevant thinkers you have never heard of.
Jonas’s life, as outlined in Christian Wiese’s lucid account,
was also interesting because of the considerable personal risks
he took in order to honor his commitments. Born to a solidly
middle-class assimilated family in Mönchengladbach, Germany, he
became a lifelong Zionist and fled to Pale