汉斯·约纳斯

汉斯·约纳斯（德语：Hans Jonas，1903年5月10日—1993年2月5日），或译汉斯·尤纳斯，犹太裔德国哲学家。

简介

约纳斯出生于德国慕逊加柏一个传统犹太人家庭。1921年起先后就读于弗莱堡大学、柏林大学、海德堡大学、马尔堡大学，师从于胡塞尔、海德格尔、鲁道夫·布尔特曼等著名教授。

1930年尤纳斯在导师海德格尔的指导下，以论文《奥古斯丁和保罗的自由问题》完成了在马堡大学的研究生课程班论文。随后又在海德格尔和神学家布尔特曼的指导下，以论文《诺斯替的概念》（Der Begriff der Gnosis）获得博士学位。

1933年迫于德国国内的排犹浪潮被迫离开德国，辗转于伦敦、巴黎等地，二战期间参加英军的犹太兵团直接与法西斯战斗。战后移居北美，任教于社会科学新学院（New Schoolf of Social Research）等多所院校，并于1993年2月5日逝世于纽约。

著作

尤纳斯最著名的代表作品为《责任命令》（The Imperative of Responsibility，德文版1979年，英文版1984年）。他的代表作还有《诺西斯与后期古典精神》、《生命现象》等。

英文著作《诺斯替宗教：异乡神的信息与基督教的开端》(The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity) 于2003年由汉语基督教文化研究所出版繁体字中译本，由张新樟翻译。

Hans Jonas (German: [ˈjoːnas]; 10 May 1903 – 5 February 1993) was a German and American philosopher. From 1955 to 1976 he was the Alvin Johnson Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City.

Biography

Jonas was born in Mönchengladbach, on 10 May 1903 to a Jewish family. He studied philosophy and theology at the University of Freiburg, the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin and Heidelberg University, and earned his Doctorate of Philosophy in 1928 from Marburg University with a thesis on Gnosticism entitled Der Begriff der Gnosis (The Concept of Gnosis) and directed by Martin Heidegger. During his studies his academic advisors included Edmund Husserl and Rudolf Bultmann. At Marburg University he met Hannah Arendt, who was also pursuing her PhD there, and the two of them were to remain friends for the rest of their lives.

When Heidegger joined the Nazi Party in 1933, it may have disturbed Jonas, as he was Jewish and an active Zionist. In 1964 Jonas repudiated his mentor Heidegger for his affiliation with the Nazis.

He left Germany for England in 1933, and from England he moved to Palestine in 1934. There he met Lore Weiner, to whom he became betrothed. In 1940 he enlisted in the British Army. He served in the Jewish Brigade and was sent to Italy, and in the last phase of the war moved into Germany. Thus, he kept his promise that he would return only as a soldier in the victorious army. During this time he wrote several letters to Lore about philosophy, in particular philosophy of biology, that would form the basis of his later publications on the subject. They finally married in 1943.

Immediately after the war he returned to Mönchengladbach to search for his mother but found that she had been sent to the gas chambers in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Having heard this, he refused to live in Germany again. He returned to Palestine and took part in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Jonas briefly taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before moving to North America. In 1950 he left for Canada, teaching at Carleton University. From there he moved to New York City in 1955, where he was to live for the rest of his life. He was a fellow of the Hastings Center and Professor of Philosophy at New School for Social Research (where he was Alvin Johnson Professor) from 1955 to 1976. From 1982 to 1983, Jonas held the Eric Voegelin Visiting Professorship at LMU Munich. He died at his home in New Rochelle, New York, on 5 February 1993, aged 89.

Philosophical work

Jonas's writings were very influential in different spheres. For example, The Gnostic Religion, based on his early research on the gnosis and first published in 1958, was for many years the standard work in English on the subject of Gnosticism. The Imperative of Responsibility (German 1979; English 1984) centers on social and ethical problems created by technology. Jonas insists that human survival depends on our efforts to care for our planet and its future. He formulated a new and distinctive supreme moral imperative: "Act so that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life".