Meet the author Hans Joas

Over the past few decades, Hans Joas has published an impressive and internationally renowned body of work on historical sociology and the philosophy of religion. His more recent publications focus (not least as part of an intensive engagement with Max Weber) on the foundations of a new historical sociology of religion, a global history of religion and the question concerning the conditions of the possibility of a moral universalism.

The connection between history and normativity expressed in this endeavour builds upon his theory of action (inspired by American Pragmatism), his theory of value formation, his religious-psychological reflections and a critical dialogue with the philosophy of history from Hegel to the present.

The core of Hans Joas’ thought is the concept of ‘affirmative genealogy’, which is connected with Troeltsch‘s existential historicism (‘self-certainty without timelessness’). Hans Joas takes a fundamental approach to this topic in his book ‘The Sacredness of the Person. A New Genealogy of Human Rights’ (2011). The fact that he develops his conception of ‘genealogy’ on the basis of the history of human rights makes the book all the more interesting for legal history. This conception is likely to take on special significance also with regard to his current work on a global history of moral universalism.

We want to discuss with Hans Joas both his notion of genealogy and the connection between history and normativity. Though the primary focus of the discussion will be on the chapter ‘Neither Kant nor Nietzsche: What is Affirmative Genealogy?’ of his book ‘The Sacredness of the Person’, reference will be made to the entire text. The working language will be English. Since this book has been published in a number of languages, including English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese, it should be readily accessible.

A preparatory meeting has been scheduled from 3:00 pm to 3:30 pm on November, 28th, 2023. It would be helpful if those interested in participating familiarised themselves with the book and his larger corpus for this meeting.

The number of participants for the discussion is limited to 20 people. The preparatory session is mandatory for participation in Meet the Author session.

Please register no later than November, 5th, 2023, https://plan.events.mpg.de/e/Joas