Hermann Cohen: An Intellectual BiographyThis book is the first complete intellectual biography of Hermann Cohen (1842-1918) and the only work to cover all his major philosophical and Jewish writings. Frederick C. Beiser pays special attention to all phases of Cohen's intellectual development, its breaks and its continuities, throughout seven decades. The guiding goal behind Cohen's intellectual career, he argues, was the development of a radical rationalism, one committed to defending the rights of unending enquiry and unlimited criticism. Cohen's philosophy was therefore an attempt to defend and revive the Enlightenment belief in the authority of reason; his critical idealism an attempt to justify this belief and to establish a purely rational worldview. According to this interpretation, Cohen's thought is resolutely opposed to any form of irrationalism or mysticism because these would impose arbitrary and artificial limits on criticism and enquiry. It is therefore critical of those interpretations which see Cohen's philosophy as a species of proto-existentialism (Rosenzweig) or Jewish mysticism (Adelmann and Kohnke). Hermann Cohen: An Intellectual Biography attempts to unify the two sides of Cohen's thought, his philosophy and his Judaism. Maintaining that Cohen's Judaism was not a limit to his radical rationalism but a consistent development of it, Beiser contends that his religion was one of reason. He concludes that most critical interpretations have failed to appreciate the philosophical depth and sophistication of his Judaism, a religion which committed the believer to the unending search for truth and the striving to achieve the cosmopolitan ideals of reason. |
Contents
The Legacy of Hermann Cohen | 1 |
Early Years 18421865 | 7 |
The Young Folk Psychologist | 21 |
Early Jewish Writings | 40 |
The Debut of a NeoKantian | 54 |
Encounter with Friedrich Albert Lange | 75 |
The NeoKantian Philosopher in the 1870s | 93 |
Jewish Writings 18801889 | 114 |
Jewish Writings 19001909 | 204 |
System of Ethics | 225 |
Aesthetics of Pure Feeling | 249 |
Jewish Writings 19101915 | 272 |
Causes and Controversies 19141917 | 300 |
Last Jewish Writings 19151918 | 326 |
A Religion of Reason | 350 |
| 367 | |
NeoKantian Writings in Marburg 18801889 | 131 |
Jewish Writings 18901899 | 160 |
A Very Important Postscript | 179 |
Cohens Logic | 193 |
| 377 | |
| 381 | |
Common terms and phrases
according aesthetics antisemitic Ästhetik autonomy basic believed Berlin Chapter Christianity claims Cohen explains Cohen maintains Cohen stresses Cohen tells Cohen thinks Cohen writes concept Coswig critical idealism critique culture distinction doctrine edition Einleitung essay ethics Ethik des reinen existence experience faith feeling Fischer Friedrich Albert Lange German Geschichte des Materialismus Hegel Herbart Hermann Cohen human idea important intellectual intuition interpretation Jewish Jews Judaism Judentums Jüdische Schriften Kant's philosophy Kantian Kants Begründung Kants Theorie knowledge Kuno Fischer Lange's later Lazarus lecture logic Marburg mathematics means metaphysics method modern monotheism moral nation Natorp nature neo-Kantian normative object origins pantheism Plato political principles priori problem psychology pure thinking question reality realm reason references in parentheses reinen Willens religion religious role seems sense social Spinoza Steinthal Talmud Theorie der Erfahrung thing-in-itself tradition transcendental Trendelenburg understanding unity universal validity Völkerpsychologie Werke Wissenschaft des Judentums wrote Zionists