Jonas and James: The Ethics and Metaphysics of Post-Holocaust Pragmatism

This essay offers a critical comparison of William James’s pragmatism with Hans Jonas’s ethics and philosophy of religion. Nine important similarities between James and Jonas are identified, ranging from pragmatic naturalism to the doctrine of a finite God, which Jonas defends as a necessary revision of our understanding of the divinity based on the experiences of the Holocaust. The deep connection between morality and mortality is also addressed. The main differences between Jonas and James are found in their accounts of the relation between ethics and metaphysics.