The Principle of Responsibility: Hans Jonas on Man's Vulnerability to Nature

Extract

[...] Jonas, in a commentary on this text inscribed in The Principle of Responsibility, relieve this violence by evoking a "violent irruption and generating violence in the cosmic order, true "rape of nature committed by man, and this by the knowledge and technique that man owes only to himself (H. Jonas thus speaksof self-education"). However, man is not omnipotent, and this relationship of domination is constantly threatened and weakened. In fact, even if man possesses knowledge and technique that allows him to make of nature what he desires, this power does not make him good, and the latter can takethe path of evil just as of good". [...]

[...] Today, man's knowledge and technique are such that a new dimension of responsibility never imagined before" by the realization of this 'vulnerability'critical vulnerability of nature", or the durable degradation of nature by man. Man is always ephemeral but nature also reveals itself to be so: it is vulnerable and permanently damaged by human actions, as in the case of the destruction of the ozone layer by the massive use of industrial products. Nature is a limited resource whose exploitation, by industrial domination, has a critical threshold, beyond which the damage caused by man is irreparable. [...]

[...] And this new order of magnitude creates a dissociation between the sphere of the intimate (within which justice and respect for others still act) and the sphere of what H. Jonas callscollective action", on a global scale, where it is difficult to enforce justice. In this collective action, a new ethics is born, specific to the contemporary man: the responsibility of theentire biosphere», responsibility that is vertiginous for man What does one understand by 'critical vulnerability of nature'? Bycritical vulnerability of nature", H. [...]

[...] Jonas notes, man, despite his abilities, remains below nature. In fact, he can do nothing against death: his domination over nature is therefore only ephemeral because it is limited in time, from his birth to his death. This domination must be constantly updated while nature, on the other hand, is eternal and all-powerful. Thus, despite "despite all the grandeur of his limitless ingenuity, man, compared to the elements, is still small H. Jonas What difference does Hans Jonas establish between the condition of the ancient man and that of the contemporary man? [...]