Hans Jonas studied philosophy and theology at the University of Freiburg, the University of Berlin and the University of Heidelberg, and finally earned his Doctorate of Philosophy in 1928 from the University of Marburg with a thesis on Gnosticism entitled Der Begriff der Gnosis and directed by Martin Heidegger.
14 Facts About Hans Jonas
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In 1964 Hans Jonas repudiated his mentor Heidegger for his affiliation with the Nazis.
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Hans Jonas left Germany for England in 1933, and from England he moved to Palestine in 1934.
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Hans Jonas was sent to Italy, and in the last phase of the war moved into Germany.
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Hans Jonas taught briefly at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before moving to North America.
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Hans Jonas was a fellow of the Hastings Center and Professor of Philosophy at New School for Social Research from 1955 to 1976.
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From 1982 to 1983 Hans Jonas held the Eric Voegelin Visiting Professorship at the University of Munich.
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Hans Jonas died at his home in New Rochelle, New York, on 5 February 1993, aged 89.
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Hans Jonas insists that human survival depends on our efforts to care for our planet and its future.
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Hans Jonas 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".
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Hans Jonas carries a human trust, and we should not make abortion merely a matter of her own private wish", society had a "social responsibility" to pregnant mothers, and "To give this mission[motherhood] over completely to individual choice oversteps the order of nature.
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Hans Jonas's writing on the history of Gnosticism revisits terrain covered by earlier standard works on the subject such as Ernesto Buonaiuti's Lo gnosticismo: storia di antiche lotte religiose, interpreting the religion from a unique version of existentialist philosophical viewpoint that informed his later contributions.
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Hans Jonas was one of the first philosophers to concern himself with ethical questions in biological science.
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Hans Jonas's career is generally divided into three periods defined by his three primary works, but in reverse order: studies of gnosticism, studies of philosophical biology, and ethical studies.