Hans Joas | |
---|---|
Born | |
Education | Free University of Berlin ( PhD, 1979) |
Era | 21st-century philosophy |
Region | Western philosophy |
School | Pragmatism |
Thesis | Praktische Intersubjektivität: Die Entwicklung des Werkes von George Herbert Mead (1979) |
Main interests | Sociology |
Hans Joas ( /ˈjoʊæs/; German: [ˈjoːas]; born November 27, 1948) is a German sociologist and social theorist.
Hans Joas is Ernst Troeltsch Professor [1] for the Sociology of Religion at the Humboldt University of Berlin. From 2011 until 2014 he was a Permanent Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS); from 2002 until 2011 he was the Director of the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies at the University of Erfurt. Since 2000 he has also been Visiting Professor of Sociology and Social Thought and a Member of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Hans Joas is Ordinary Member of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
In 2012 Joas was the first scholar to be Visiting Professor of the Joseph Ratzinger Pope Benedikt XVI. Foundation at the University of Regensburg. The topic of his lectures was "Sacralization and Secularization".
Hans Joas focuses on social philosophy and sociological theory, especially American pragmatism and historicism; sociology of religion and sociology of war and violence; and changing values in modern society.
A particular focus of Joas' research is the emergence of values. To this end, he elaborated a theory of the affirmative genealogy of values, especially of human rights. According to Joas, values emerge in experiences of self-formation and self-transcendence. To this end, he developed a phenomenology of the experience of self-transcendence "from individual prayer to collective ecstasy in archaic rituals or in nationalistic enthusiasm for war"; "it includes moral feelings, the opening of the self in conversation, and in the experience of nature." Joas emphasizes that his consideration of the contingency of the emergence of values should in no way be understood "as a plea against the claims of a universalistic morality."
In a three-volume work, Joas attempts to develop the outline of a global history of moral universalism from these premises. In the first volume, published in 2017, "The Power of the Sacred. An Alternative to the Narrative of Disenchantment," he presented a detailed critique of the historical narrative, going back to Max Weber, of a world-historical process of disenchantment that has been advancing since the Hebrew prophets, and a sketch of an alternative to it. In the second volume, published in 2020, "Im Bannkreis der Freiheit. Religionstheorie nach Hegel and Nietzsche", published in 2020 (English translation forthcoming), is concerned in parallel with overcoming the historical image of a history of religion culminating in Protestant Christianity and its constitutive significance for the constitution of modern political freedom, which goes back to Hegel. In portraits of important philosophical, sociological and theological thinkers on religion, the approaches to an alternative are further substantiated. In the third volume currently in progress (working title "Universalismus. Weltherrschaft und Menschheitsethos"), this alternative is being broadly elaborated historically and sociologically. His most recent book (2022), "Warum Kirche? Selbstoptimierung oder Glaubensgemeinschaft" relates the debates about a new understanding of church and about church reform to this history of moral universalism.
Hans Joas | |
---|---|
Born | |
Education | Free University of Berlin ( PhD, 1979) |
Era | 21st-century philosophy |
Region | Western philosophy |
School | Pragmatism |
Thesis | Praktische Intersubjektivität: Die Entwicklung des Werkes von George Herbert Mead (1979) |
Main interests | Sociology |
Hans Joas ( /ˈjoʊæs/; German: [ˈjoːas]; born November 27, 1948) is a German sociologist and social theorist.
Hans Joas is Ernst Troeltsch Professor [1] for the Sociology of Religion at the Humboldt University of Berlin. From 2011 until 2014 he was a Permanent Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS); from 2002 until 2011 he was the Director of the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies at the University of Erfurt. Since 2000 he has also been Visiting Professor of Sociology and Social Thought and a Member of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Hans Joas is Ordinary Member of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
In 2012 Joas was the first scholar to be Visiting Professor of the Joseph Ratzinger Pope Benedikt XVI. Foundation at the University of Regensburg. The topic of his lectures was "Sacralization and Secularization".
Hans Joas focuses on social philosophy and sociological theory, especially American pragmatism and historicism; sociology of religion and sociology of war and violence; and changing values in modern society.
A particular focus of Joas' research is the emergence of values. To this end, he elaborated a theory of the affirmative genealogy of values, especially of human rights. According to Joas, values emerge in experiences of self-formation and self-transcendence. To this end, he developed a phenomenology of the experience of self-transcendence "from individual prayer to collective ecstasy in archaic rituals or in nationalistic enthusiasm for war"; "it includes moral feelings, the opening of the self in conversation, and in the experience of nature." Joas emphasizes that his consideration of the contingency of the emergence of values should in no way be understood "as a plea against the claims of a universalistic morality."
In a three-volume work, Joas attempts to develop the outline of a global history of moral universalism from these premises. In the first volume, published in 2017, "The Power of the Sacred. An Alternative to the Narrative of Disenchantment," he presented a detailed critique of the historical narrative, going back to Max Weber, of a world-historical process of disenchantment that has been advancing since the Hebrew prophets, and a sketch of an alternative to it. In the second volume, published in 2020, "Im Bannkreis der Freiheit. Religionstheorie nach Hegel and Nietzsche", published in 2020 (English translation forthcoming), is concerned in parallel with overcoming the historical image of a history of religion culminating in Protestant Christianity and its constitutive significance for the constitution of modern political freedom, which goes back to Hegel. In portraits of important philosophical, sociological and theological thinkers on religion, the approaches to an alternative are further substantiated. In the third volume currently in progress (working title "Universalismus. Weltherrschaft und Menschheitsethos"), this alternative is being broadly elaborated historically and sociologically. His most recent book (2022), "Warum Kirche? Selbstoptimierung oder Glaubensgemeinschaft" relates the debates about a new understanding of church and about church reform to this history of moral universalism.