Abstract

In view of the ever-increasing dominance of technology in modernity, which goes hand in hand with an ever-faster development of new technologies as well as an ever-increasing blurring of the boundaries between the natural and the artificial, an evaluation of emerging technologies cannot be put off. As early as 1979, in his work "The Imperative of Responsibility," Hans Jonas developed a 'heuristics of fear' as a principle and method for assessing the dangers of new technologies in the face of ignorance of their future consequences. As the article attempts to show, the task of this 'heuristics' amounts to more than assessing the risk of technical developments and presenting application-oriented measures based on this assessment. As a feeling, the fear should also illustrate ex negativo that which constitutes human existence as such, insofar as technology always inscribes itself in the self-image of humankind. This becomes clear when one goes back to the historical reference point of Jonas' conception of this feeling in Heidegger's analysis of Angst, from which it becomes clear that it is a matter of preserving the horizon of possibilities for human Dasein. However, Jonas does not only mean the open character of one's own existence in the sense of Heidegger. Similar to Hegel's concept of fear in "Lordship and Bondage," Jonas is concerned with a form of "selfless fear" that involves a collective We and is also concerned about future generations and their possibilities.