For an ecological economy
Notes on the first formulation of the Imperative of Responsibility by Hans Jonas in the economic field
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24310/nyl.20.2026.21898Keywords:
Hans Jonas, Principle of Responsability, Ecological Economics, Environmental Ethics, Ecological crisisAbstract
This work analyzes the first formulation of Hans Jonas’s principle of responsibility in the economic sphere, presented in 1969—a decade before his renowned work Das Prinzip Verantwortung (1979). In the essay «Socio-economic Knowledge and Ignorance of Ends», Jonas proposes an ecological economic ethics grounded in responsibility toward both present and future life, human and non-human. The author anticipates concepts such as the heuristic of fear and comparative futurology, and criticizes the economic model based on unlimited growth and the exploitation of natural resources. He argues that the ecological crisis demands from economics a new moral order guided by frugality, modesty, and care. By situating economics as the original field of his ecological imperative, Jonas reveals that the integration of ecology, ethics, and economics is essential to ensure the continuity of life on the planet.
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