Note: Review of Hans Jonas's book The Responsibility Principle. Test of a ethics for technological civilization. Barcelona, Spain: Editorial HERDER.
The existing need for human beings to act with caution and sustainability in the face of the dangerous consequences of the dynamics of modern technology and the enormous transformative power of technoscience is a reality, since without a doubt, we are in an ecological crisis.
It is visible that in the inevitable progress of technology, science and society, they are causing decline and a disaster on our planet that calls us to behave responsibly; Although, although technology has generated great benefits to humanity and improved the quality of life in certain aspects, it has also been a slow and gradual threat of a catastrophe that will destroy the home of man, our planet.
That is why the philosopher Jonas, with his writing "The Responsibility Principle", shares a critical assessment of modern science and technology (in his time) where he postulates that thinking should be rethought towards ethics; since there is an abuse of man's dominion over nature, causing its destruction. This he wrote based on his experience in World War II and his encounter with the reality of death, seeing examples, such as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.
Development
The man and his pride show the strength, necessary and unusual, with the power to annul the life of the extrahuman nature and crumble the planet; That is why the Principle of Responsibility provides encouragement to maintain the hope of salvation and sustainability.
Although, it is necessary that in our action, life is not prevented from continuing; on the contrary, that a life bearing humanity and worth living is generated supported by an ethic as a doctrine of being and not as of doing. This leads us to suppose that nature and science, subjected to a new human action (technique), have unfortunately become a moral problem; since by having nature at the service of man, it became susceptible to being radically altered due to the mismanagement of its power over it.
The consideration that must be handled is not only yearning for the common good, but also that of all extra-human nature such as flora and fauna. Many times the human being has the intention of being a creator, but is not really qualified to play this role; since in the face of human power there is an absence of rules that order their actions.
As for science, many times one of its achievements is expressed by technology where research is considered as a blind machine of knowledge, becoming an absence of consciousness. Technology for its part is a concept of modernity, where for there to be responsibility it is necessary for a conscious being to exist, thus allowing modern technique to introduce actions of unforeseen magnitudes that ethics can no longer contain at times; therefore Jonas regards modernity as an accelerated accumulation of the dominance of technology.
Investigating, without a doubt, is a beneficial weapon that helps us discover what our being is curious about and gives an answer to our restlessness; however, the problem lies in the one to investigate. Technical development depends on science, which in turn, the progress of technical science, leaving in the latter the essence of power, forming a history on many occasions of social irresponsibility, whims and serious and costly errors.
It is time to empower ethical values, rather than technology, since technoscience is too powerful to be left to scientists. A balance is needed where knowledge is accompanied by an ethical reflection that moderates the power of science. The responsibility of the human being is not only with himself but also with others, which is why he requires a broader and more radical notion of responsibility, which makes him an agent of transformation for good.
conclusion
It is indisputable that the era of current technology has filled with valuable and great benefits, but there is always going to be a cost to pay, and for modern man this cost can be its destruction. Man must think that if the danger of what he will design or create increases, his responsibility must increase. The principle of responsibility expresses that the condition of existence of humanity is preserved, for this reason we are all exhorted to be agents of transformation and to consider ethics as an urgent call that asks to find a balance.
Today, the technique reaches the human being in his entire existence, in thought, in feelings, in health, in his present and in his future; his life is permeable to the innovations of technology. These are spread extremely quickly both in the field of knowledge and in the practical domain, through communication channels and due to market pressure.
In the society in which we live, in various sectors such as health or educational research centers, it is faced with a lack of resources, where it would be essential that the allocation of money obeys the priorities governed by responsibility. For what becomes worrying in modern science, the search for economic interests, losing the necessary logic of science for the good of humanity; turning the world into a laboratory available to technoscience without an ethical limit. In Jonas's words, everything happens as if you had a “blank check”, for any and all action.
Finally, it should be mentioned that only a permanent and constantly exercised ethical conscience can modulate this uncontrolled and irresponsible technological and scientific era that is being lived.
Source of information:
