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Introduction
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Introduction I envision Cohen’s book printed in Hebrew folio-editions of the seventh millennia . . . editions in which Cohen’s word is drowning in a flood of commentary that surrounds it from all sides. Franz Rosenzweig This translation and commentary of Hermann Cohen’s 1908 essay, “Charakteristik der Ethik Maimunis ,” is an introduction, of a unique sort, to medieval and modern Jewish philosophy. As a translation , it makes available in English for the first time this seminal work of Hermann Cohen—rigorous critic of Kant, passionate teacher of the prophetic Jewish tradition, philosopher , and cultural critic. As a commentary , partaking of both Cohen’s philosophical and Jewish writings and of the author’s own learning, this book guides readers along the path of reexamining Jewish philosophy and Jewish literary sources through the eyes of a thinker whose philosophy, whose interpretation of Jewish texts, and, in fact, whose entire life is committed both to the critical tradition of ethical reasoning and to the authority of the Jewish oral tradition.1 The physical format of this book reflects the inspiration of that tradition, as the multilayered structure of text and commentary corresponds to the pedagogical setting that stood at its inception and that tradition calls chavruta (studying and dialogue). Moses ben Maimon: Sein Leben, seine Werke und sein Einfluß (His Life, His Work, His Influence) Cohen’s essay “Charakteristik der Ethik Maimunis” appeared originally in the first of two volumes entitled Moses ben Maimon: Sein Leben, seine Werke und sein Einflu ß· (His life, his work, his influence ), published in 1908 by the Society for the Advancement of Jewish Studies on the occasion of the seven-hundredth commemoration of Maimonides’ death.2 The essays collected in these two volumes ethics of maimonides xxii reflect an interdisciplinary cultural agenda in which Maimonides figures as an active and creative participant . He emerges here as a thoroughly acculturated intellectual and philosopher who interacts simultaneously with Christian scholasticism , Muslim culture, the work of Saadya Gaon, halakhic tradition, the world of Scripture and Haggada , rabbinic hermeneutics, Platonic Aristotelian philosophy and science, and Kabbala. The commanding breadth and depth of this multicultural portrayal of Maimonides reflects the scope of Jewish scholarship at the turn of the twentieth century; the most distinguished Jewish scholars from all over Europe and throughout all fields of textual scholarship (including philosophy, Arabic literary studies, rabbinic studies, the study of Midrash and Jewish liturgy) contributed to these volumes. Among them are Hermann Cohen, Jacob Guttmann, Ismar Elbogen, Adolf Schwarz, Israel Friedlaender, Eduard Baneth, Wilhelm Bacher, and Ludwig Blau. A Long-Overdue Translation: The Importance of Cohen’s Jewish Writings Hermann Cohen (1842–1918), primarily known for his groundbreaking contribution to the critical idealism of the neo-Kantian school of Marburg,3 published about seventy essays on matters related to Jewish studies and public Jewish life. In these essays, Cohen wrote about Jewish philosophy, Jewish history, Jewish biblical literature , Talmud, Jewish education, and Jewish contemporary political affairs. Most of these essays were published during Cohen’s lifetime in various Jewish journals and newspapers; all of them were either reprinted (or first printed) in the three volumes of Hermann Cohens Jüdische Schriften (Hermann Cohen’s Jewish writings), published posthumously in 1924, with a famous and influential introduction by Franz Rosenzweig.4 Cohen’s “Charakteristik der Ethik Maimunis ” (Ethics of Maimonides) was included in this posthumous collection . Although studded with rabbinic learning and medieval Jewish literary references, this essay on Maimonides speaks the language of philosophy. Due to the strict, and unfortunate, editorial division between Cohen’s “philosophical ” essays and his “Jewish” writings, however, Cohen’s essay on Maimonides was lost to the philosophical readers that it clearly wished to address.5 In order to understand the cultural agenda that was destroyed by this editorial division, the following background may prove instructive . After Cohen’s death in 1918, Bruno Strauss, Albert Görland, and Ernst Cassirer took the initiative to compile collected volumes [3.95.233.107] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 14:27 GMT) introduction xxiii of Cohen’s essays. These scholars distinguished systematically between Cohen’s “Greek” writings and his “Jewish” writings.6 Two separate posthumous collections of Cohen’s essays subsequently appeared in Berlin within five years. The first collection contains Cohen’s “Jewish” writings, edited by Bruno Strauss, published in three volumes under the title Hermann Cohens Jüdische Schriften, 1924, as mentioned above. The second includes Cohen’s “philosophical ” writings, including his dissertation, his early writings on Plato and on German Idealism...