HANNAH ARENDT AND HANS JONAS:

QUESTIONS ABOUT HUMAN FINITUDE AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF TECHNIQUE

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss how modern technology has become a prominent political ethical issue. To this end, we highlight the theoretical contributions of Hannah Arendt and Hans Jonas, the latter as a political theorist and he for his philosophy of life. The objective is to explore notions of natality, technique and its transformation in modernity, which are common to the authors. Although Arendt does not have a work centered on the technological issue, such as Jonas's The Principle of Responsibility, her reflection on homo faber and animal laborans contribute to a discussion about technique in the modern world. Thus, the main argument is that homo faber, as described by Arendt and Jonas, applied techniques of transformation and creation of artifices important to human life. However, the activity that previously sought ways to stabilize human life on Earth began to have as its purpose the modification of the human condition itself. In this context, birth and death–as expressions of human finitude–acquire a space in the reflection on technology. A reflection whose political ethical character is explained, since it highlights human responsibility in the face of such transformations and their implications.