Does the case for Jonas’s importance necessarily rest upon his relationship with Heidegger? Is the “bold” thesis regarding Jonas as equivalent to Kant (or something of a new St. Thomas, perhaps) dependent upon surpassing Heidegger? Should any but self-professing “Heideggerians” even be so concerned? Spending as much time as Levy does on the Jonas-Heidegger matter rather than focusing deeply and comprehensively on Jonas’s texts leads readers to conclude that the bold claim follows only if one accepts that Heidegger is in fact the only great thinker in our time.

Levy himself never substantiates this claim either, but instead twice refers to Leo Strauss’s remarks on Heidegger as “the only great thinker in our time.”11 And yet, surprisingly, Levy also writes the following: “I do not know if Jonas is, in Strauss’s sense, a great thinker proportionate to Heidegger – only time will tell.”

¶ 1:17 PM