The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age
by Hans Jonas
“Blind nature will nearly always select the most probable, but man can let the most improbable become actual.” ― Hans Jonas
A risk-averse framework for the scientific era is introduced by Jonas. The worst-case scenario must take precedence over ideal projections when assessing existential risks such as genetic engineering or climate change. He contends that although we can afford to lose a bet on advancement, we cannot afford to lose a bet on human survival. Jonas bases his ethics on metaphysics, in contrast to many modern philosophers who separate ethics from objective reality. He claims that Being is intrinsically more valuable than Non-Being. Humanity has an unavoidable obligation to safeguard nature's intrinsic purpose for existing. The last sections criticize utopianism by focusing on both capitalist and Marxist ideas of unending technological advancement. Jonas argues for a politics of self-control and clearly illustrates how utopian visions of technological abundance directly result in ecological collapse.
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