BOOK REVIEW: John-Stewart Gordon and Holger Burckhart (editors), “Global Ethics and Moral Responsibility. Hans Jonas and his Critics”, Burckhart, Ashgate, United Kingdom, 2014

Abstract

The volume Global Ethics and Moral responsibility includes eleven articles – some already published as independent papers. The opening essay belongs to Hans Jonas to whom this anthology is dedicated. As the editors’ intent is to devote the influence of the German-Jewish philosopher’s work on the debates between 1980 and 1990 regarding the responsibility in the context of the risk societies. The volume has four chapters, emphasizing a different dimension of the Hans Jonas’ thinking – starting with his own philosophy, next chapters propose an applied approach on Jonas’ work by debating topics like: the connection between the human nature and the imperative of responsibility; ethics and natural philosophy; the ethics of technology and moral responsibility. At a first glance upon this anthology, it will bring into our attention the plurality of the applied approaches on the Hans Jonas’s philosophy. Therefore, the following paragraphs will give an insight about the focus of each paper in the present volume.