The Ontological Ethics of Hans Jonas

Abstract

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of Hans Jonas’s work on ethics and its ontological foundations. Jonas’s philosophical work can be understood as an elaborate attack on cosmic nihilism, which is the view that ultimately nothing matters, that all values are man-made and just reflect our transitory interests, so that nothing is in itself any better or worse than anything else. Jonas believed that this standard view, which seemed to be required by a scientific, materialist worldview, is in fact mistaken. To show how and why it is mistaken, Jonas conducted a metaphysical investigation into the nature of being, which then provided him with a solid ontological foundation for ethics.