Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-26T08:01:34.549Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Existentialism and Biology1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 1967

T. A. Goudge
T. A. Goudge
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Philosophers of existentialist outlook, although obsessed with the human condition, have neglected the fact that men have bodies and arc members of the animal kingdom. Because of this neglect, two opportunities have been missed. Existentialists have failed to draw upon the knowledge amassed by biology about living things and about man's place in the organic world. They have also failed to take a look at biological phenomena in the light of their own conceptual scheme. As a result, they have had a one-sided view of what the human condition is and have misconstrued the nature of man. It is therefore an event worthy of notice when a philosopher sympathetic to existentialism deals seriously with these matters, as Professor Jonas does in his interesting book.

Type
Critical Notices/Études critiques
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , March 1967 , pp. 603 - 608
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 1967

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Jonas, Hans, The Phenomenon of Life: Toward a Philosophical Biology. New York: Harper & Row. 1966. x, 303Google Scholar pages. $6.00.