Background
Cohn, Jonas was born on December 2, 1869 in Görlitz, Germany.
NeoKantian: metaphysician ethical philosopher
Cohn, Jonas was born on December 2, 1869 in Görlitz, Germany.
Leipzig. Berlin and Heidelberg received doctorate in Systematic Botany in 1892, but switched to Philosophy and Pedagogy at Freiburg.
Professor, Freiburg, 1901-1933. Emigrated to England in 1933.
Cohn’s philosophy consists largely in a critique of a mechanistic conception of nature. He argued for an independent foundation of such axiological disciplines as ethics, aesthetics, and pedagogy. He is regarded as a member of the ‘Heidelberg’ school of NeoKantianism. Like the others, he also is interested in providing a theory of culture. He argued, in agreement with Kant, that an object cannot be comprehended in isolation from its cognition. Rejecting both naturalism and non-naturalism he advocated a theory of dialectic which utilized the overcoming of contradictions as a way of approaching absolute knowledge. However, his thought should not be understood as advocating a philosophy of the absolute so much as a philosophy on the way to the absolute. In his ethics, aesthetics and pedagogy Cohn opposed Kant’s ‘formalism’, advocating a form of material value theory. His pedagogical theory is deeply influenced by Schleiermacher. He argued that the goal of education should be to transform the child into an autonomous member of the culture he/she belongs to.