Robert Spaemann and the Critique of Hans Jonas’s Functionalistic Political Ontology

The aim of the article is to reconstruct Robert Spaemann’s interpretation of the inversion of teleology, showing that it constitutes a critique of Hans Jonas’s political ontology, as put forward in The Imperative of Responsibility. Jonas’s attempts to rethink the fundamental presuppositions of ethical and political thought in response to ecological challenges are dependent on a Hobbesian inversion of teleology. Spaemann’s critical analysis of this inversion of teleology shows that, in his attempts to find principles that would restore harmony between nature and humanity, Jonas remained dependent on a functionalistic ontology shaped by Thomas Hobbes. This ontology is characterised by a tendency to subordinate all of existence to the conditions of its survival. Spaemann’s interpretation reveals that, in the tradition of political thought initiated by Hobbes and continued by Jonas, the tension between elementary physical survival and the good life tends to disappear. This establishes a functionalistic political ontology. The affirmation of totalitarian survivalism allows Jonas to be aligned with positions of the nihilistic right.