Background
Cohen, Hermann was born on July 4, 1842 in Coswig, Anhalt, Germany. His father was a cantor and Hebrew teacher in the small German town of Kos-wig (Anhalt).
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Other Work
- Main publications:(1925) Kants Theorie der Erfahrung [Kant's Theory of Empiricism], fourth reprint. Berlin: B. Cassirer (PhD thesis of 1871).(1902) Logik der Reinen Erkenntnis [The Logic of Pure Cognition], Berlin: B. Cassirer
- new editions 1914 and 1922.(1904) Die Ethik des Reinen Willens [The Ethic of Pure Will], Berlin: B. Cassirer
- new editions, 1907, 1920 and 1921.(1915) Der Begriff der Religion im System der Philosophie [The Concept of Religion in the Philosophical System], Giessen: A. Töpelmann. (1918) Die Religion der Vernunft aus den Quellen des Judentums [The Religion of Reason Taken From Jewish Sources], (English translation. Religion of Reason, trans. S. Kaplan, New York: Ungar, 1972). (1924) Jüdische Schriften (collected writings)
- 3 vols.pref. F. Rosenzweig, New York: Amo, 1980.(1928) Schriften zur Philosophie und Zeitgeschichte [Writings on Philosophy and Contemporary History], Berlin: Adkademie-Verlag, (eulogy by E. Cassirer).Secondary literature:Bergman. Samuel H. (1961) Faith and Reason: An Introduction to Modern Jewish Thought, trans. A. Jospe, New York: Schocken.
Hermann Cohen
Edit ProfileEducation
Cohen received a comprehensive Jewish education in addition to his general studies. He went to Breslau (now Wroctaw, Poland) to attend the rabbinical seminary and the. university but soon dropped the former to concentrate on general philosophy. He continued at the University of Berlin, where he fell under the influence of Kant.
Career
His thesis on Kant’s theory of experience made an immediate impact and he was invited to teach at the University of Marburg, being appointed a full professor of philosophy within three years.
In Marburg, he married the daughter of the famous composer of Jewish cantorial music, Louis Lewandowski; she perished in the Holocaust in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Cohen taught in Marburg until 1912 and was an outstanding figure in European intellectual life.
Cohen’s work influenced subsequent Jewish thinkers including Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, and Joseph Ber Soloveichik. His belief that man shares the task of creation through his correlation with God foreshadowed the philosophy of dialogue.
Achievements
Works
Other Work
-
Main publications:(1925) Kants Theorie der Erfahrung [Kant's Theory of Empiricism], fourth reprint. Berlin: B. Cassirer (PhD thesis of 1871).(1902) Logik der Reinen Erkenntnis [The Logic of Pure Cognition], Berlin: B. Cassirer
-
new editions 1914 and 1922.(1904) Die Ethik des Reinen Willens [The Ethic of Pure Will], Berlin: B. Cassirer
-
new editions, 1907, 1920 and 1921.(1915) Der Begriff der Religion im System der Philosophie [The Concept of Religion in the Philosophical System], Giessen: A. Töpelmann. (1918) Die Religion der Vernunft aus den Quellen des Judentums [The Religion of Reason Taken From Jewish Sources], (English translation. Religion of Reason, trans. S. Kaplan, New York: Ungar, 1972). (1924) Jüdische Schriften (collected writings)
-
3 vols.pref. F. Rosenzweig, New York: Amo, 1980.(1928) Schriften zur Philosophie und Zeitgeschichte [Writings on Philosophy and Contemporary History], Berlin: Adkademie-Verlag, (eulogy by E. Cassirer).Secondary literature:Bergman. Samuel H. (1961) Faith and Reason: An Introduction to Modern Jewish Thought, trans. A. Jospe, New York: Schocken.
-
Views
His Judaism initially was identified with liberal Christianity and he said to a colleague, “What you call Christianity, I call prophetic Judaism." However, in 1879 he was stung by a pamphlet by Heinrich von Treitschke, "Ein Wort über unser Judentum" (“A Word on Our Judaism”) which called Judaism the national religion of an alien tribe.
The following year, Cohen published a response. "Ein Bekenntnis zur Judenfrage" (“The Jewish Question: A Confession”). It advocated a policy of assimilation and was sharply condemned by the German Jewish establishment. However, it marked the beginning of his renewed interest in and study of Judaism.
From the 1890s, this developed from an objective approach to a warm commitment. Cohen also spoke out on Jewish matters and appeared as an expert witness in a trial in which the Marburg Jewish community accused a public school teacher of slandering Judaism. Cohen published his testimony as "Die Nächstenliebe im Talmud" (“Brotherly Love in the Talmud”), in which he sought to reconcile Judaism’s universalism with its particularism.
The supreme message of Judaism, to him, was the prophetical concept of God as morality. He even saw the acquittal of Captain Alfred Dreyfus in 1899 as an act of redemption, writing: “Dreyfus has suffered for the Redeemer of Israel.”
After his retirement from the university in 1912, he moved to Berlin, where he became deeply involved in Jewish thought, writing his "Die Religion der Vernunft aus den Quellen des Judentums" (“Religion of Reason from the Sources of Judaism”), accord to which the historical role of the Jewish people is to disseminate ethical monotheism throughout the world (he rejected Zionism as contradicting this mission). While Judaism is a religion of reason, it is a faith interpenetrated by ethics. The major ethical concepts were created by the Hebrew prophets who enabled religion to disentangled from myths. The Messiah should be seen as the triumph of good and the achievement of the human drive to perfection.
Quotations:
The Essence of Judaism According to Hermann Cohen (1910)
1. It emphasizes God’s uniqueness and absolute difference from all creatures (which excludes pantheism).
2. Man confronts God directly and without any intermediary.
3. There is an indissoluble relationship between knowledge and belief. Study is a sacred duty and there is no conflict between faith and knowledge.
4. The Sabbath is central.
5. It emphasizes freedom and the individual’s moral responsibility, and rejects original sin.
6. History has a direction and a goal: the unity of man in messianic times.
