Among the few philosophers who dedicated philosophical reflection on the problem of technology, Hans Jonas would be the leading one. Still in a close affinity with Martin Heidegger, his teacher, Jonas argued that mode...Among the few philosophers who dedicated philosophical reflection on the problem of technology, Hans Jonas would be the leading one. Still in a close affinity with Martin Heidegger, his teacher, Jonas argued that modem technology bore some annoying characters. In line of this anxiety, Jonas suggested the importance of protecting life as an integral part of the ethical project he intended to build. Departing from his basic notion that human life is never separated from other organic life, Jonas has opened a wider space for ethical responsibilities towards life of the whole cosmos. In what sense is his notion of the responsibility towards the whole life should be understood is one of the aim of this paper. Baring in mind that Jonas developed his concept on life and human responsibility towards it as an argumentation against the development of technology, the social context in which modem technology finds its root is worthed to be discussed. It is concluded that separating ethics from ontology as many theorists and philosophers did so far has strengthened the old notion of human autonomy with its defects, and by that, the destruction of life seemed to be accepted as a consequence of it.展开更多
Rapid developments in both fundamental science and modern technology that target water-related problems, including the physical nature of our planet and environment, the origin of life, energy production via water spl...Rapid developments in both fundamental science and modern technology that target water-related problems, including the physical nature of our planet and environment, the origin of life, energy production via water splitting, and water purification, all call for a molecular-level understanding of water. This invokes relentless efforts to further our understanding of the basic science of water. Current challenges to achieve a molecular picture of the peculiar properties and behavior of water are discussed herein, with a particular focus on the structure and dynamics of bulk and surface water, the molecular mechanisms of water wetting and splitting, application-oriented research on water decontamination and desalination, and the development of complementary techniques for probing water at the nanoscale.展开更多
文摘Among the few philosophers who dedicated philosophical reflection on the problem of technology, Hans Jonas would be the leading one. Still in a close affinity with Martin Heidegger, his teacher, Jonas argued that modem technology bore some annoying characters. In line of this anxiety, Jonas suggested the importance of protecting life as an integral part of the ethical project he intended to build. Departing from his basic notion that human life is never separated from other organic life, Jonas has opened a wider space for ethical responsibilities towards life of the whole cosmos. In what sense is his notion of the responsibility towards the whole life should be understood is one of the aim of this paper. Baring in mind that Jonas developed his concept on life and human responsibility towards it as an argumentation against the development of technology, the social context in which modem technology finds its root is worthed to be discussed. It is concluded that separating ethics from ontology as many theorists and philosophers did so far has strengthened the old notion of human autonomy with its defects, and by that, the destruction of life seemed to be accepted as a consequence of it.
基金We thank discussion and help from Chongqin Zhu and Dr. Hui Li, Dr. Z. X. Cao, and Dr. Y. Luo during manuscript preparation. Financial support from NIST, the National Basic Research Program of China （No. 2012CB921403） and the National Natural Science Foundationof China （Nos. 11474328, 11290164, and 11222431） and CAS are gratefully acknowledged.
文摘Rapid developments in both fundamental science and modern technology that target water-related problems, including the physical nature of our planet and environment, the origin of life, energy production via water splitting, and water purification, all call for a molecular-level understanding of water. This invokes relentless efforts to further our understanding of the basic science of water. Current challenges to achieve a molecular picture of the peculiar properties and behavior of water are discussed herein, with a particular focus on the structure and dynamics of bulk and surface water, the molecular mechanisms of water wetting and splitting, application-oriented research on water decontamination and desalination, and the development of complementary techniques for probing water at the nanoscale.
