From the ontology of life to the ontolgy of death

Notes on Hans Jonas’ organic philosophy

Abstract

This article considers a few specific points of Hans Jonas’ second intellectual project: the foundation of a philosophical biology. In order to do so, we analyze the contrast put forward by Jonas between the systems of thought related to “the first stage of human speculation of life” and modern dualism. While the first phase problematizes death from the standpoint of life, the second problematizes life from the standpoint of death. Jonas, in attacking the grounds of modern evolutionism, pays special attention to the relationship between matter and spirit.