Hans Jonas and Classical Jewish Sources: New Dimensions

Abstract

There is growing interest in the Jewish dimensions of the life and thought of Hans Jonas, a twentieth-century philosopher whose increasingly influential teachings address some of the most vexing philosophic and public policy challenges of modern times. This essay aims to clarify the reasons why Jonas might be reckoned as a Jewish thinker while calling into doubt recent claims of his major significance as a modern Jewish thinker, some of which go so far as to urge his addition to the canon of great twentieth-century thinkers, alongside Cohen, Buber, Rosenzweig, Strauss, Levinas, and Kaplan.