Organism, Medicine, and Metaphysics : Essays in Honor of Hans Jonas on His 75th Birthday, May 10, 1978

This Festschrift is presented to Professor Hans Jonas on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday, as affirmation of the contributors' respect and admiration. As a volume in the series 'Philosophy and Medicine' the contributions not only reflect certain interests and pursuits of the scholar to whom it is dedi­ cated, but also serve to bring to convergence the interests of the contributors in the history of humanity and medicine, the theory of organism, medicine in the service of the patient's autonomy, and the metaphysical, i.e., phenome­ nological foundations of medicine. Notwithstanding the nature of such personal gifts as the authors' contributions (which, with the exception of the late Hannah Arendt's, appear here for the first time), the essays also transcend the personal and serve to elaborate specific themes and theses disclosed in the numerous writings of Hans Jonas. The editor owes a personal debt of gratitude to many, including Hannah Arendt, who offered their assistance during the preparation of the volume. Front Matter....Pages i-xxvii Prometheus Unbound? A New World in the Making....Pages 1-10 Front Matter....Pages 11-11 The System of Anthropina....Pages 13-27 Philosophy and Medicine in Medieval and Renaissance Italy....Pages 29-40 Care of the Healthy and the Sick from the Attending Physician’s Perspective: Envisioned and Actual (1977)....Pages 41-56 The Conflict Between the Desire to Know and the Need to Care for the Patient....Pages 57-72 The Execution of Euthanasia: The Right of the Dying to a Re-Formed Health Care Context....Pages 73-94 Front Matter....Pages 95-95 Teleology and Darwin’s the Origin of Species: Beyond Chance and Necessity?....Pages 97-120 Individuals and Their Kinds: Aristotelian Foundations of Biology....Pages 121-136 The Organism According to Process Philosophy....Pages 137-154 Whitehead and Jonas: On Biological Organisms and Real Individuals....Pages 155-175 The Redefinition of Death....Pages 177-197 Front Matter....Pages 199-199 Descartes and Mastery of Nature....Pages 201-223 The Philosopher and the Scientists: Comments on the Perception of the Exact Sciences in the Work of Hans Jonas....Pages 225-231 Life, Disease, and Death: A Metaphysical Viewpoint....Pages 233-263 Ontology and the Body: A Reflection....Pages 265-282 Intentionality and the Mind/Body Problem....Pages 283-300 Front Matter....Pages 301-301 Metaphor and the Ineffable: Illumination on ‘the Nobility of Sight’....Pages 303-316 Bibliography of the Works of Hans Jonas....Pages 317-324 Back Matter....Pages 325-330