The theory of God and the challenge of niilism: Hans Jonas about Nietzsche

Abstract

In this article, we intend to analyze Hans Jonas's interpretation of Nietzsche's section 125 of The Gay Science, as it is presented in the reflection developed in the lectures taught by Jonas at Carleton College, Ottawa, during the winter semester of 1952-1953 and kept in the (unpublished) notes entitled The Theory of God, preserved in the Philosophisches Archiv Hans Jonas, at the Universität Konstanz. For this, we start with the Jonasian analysis of the fear of the unknown as a central element in the philosophies of Epicurus and especially Pascal, to show how Nietzsche deepens the reflection begun by the philosopher of Port-Royal and how the intensification of fear and feeling of loneliness would present itselves as a possibility of confronting nihilism. From the point of view of Jonah's own interests, we would not only be dealing with a theory about God in the strict sense, but a reflection on technology as “the will of unlimited power”, i. e., as the exercise of man who, alone and without God, seeks dominion over the world.