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  • Hermann Cohen’s Critical Idealism
  • Sebastian Luft
Reinier Munk , editor. Hermann Cohen’s Critical Idealism. Amsterdam Studies in Jewish Thought 10. Dordrecht: Springer, 2005. Pp. v + 434. Cloth, $229.00.

This anthology, the first of its kind in English, is devoted to a much-needed reassessment of Hermann Cohen's philosophy. Cohen (1842–1918) was one of the founders of the [End Page 668] so-called Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism (comprised, besides him, essentially of Paul Natorp and Ernst Cassirer) and came to be, with the development of his own philosophical system following his Kant interpretation, one of the most original thinkers in Germany during his lifetime. Moreover, his charismatic personality inspired other philosophers, such as Natorp and Cassirer in Marburg as well as the members of the Southwest School, e.g., Heinrich Rickert, Wilhelm Windelband, and Emil Lask. He became very influential in Berlin after his retirement in 1912, where he lectured at the Rabbinic Seminary (Lehranstalt für die Wissenschaft des Judentums) to a new generation of Jewish thinkers, particularly Franz Rosenzweig and Martin Buber. His most important contribution to philosophy, however, is his critical idealism.

Cohen's "System of Philosophy" is laid down in three subsequent works, Logik der reinen Erkenntnis (Logic of Pure Cognition, 1902), Ethik des reinen Willens (Ethics of Pure Willing, 1904), and Ästhetik des reinen Gefühls (Aesthetics of Pure Feeling, 1912). These works were written in obvious analogy to Kant's system, after he published commentaries on the three Critiques—his interpretative commentary on the First Critique is still consulted to this day. Though not part of his critical system, his works on religion occupied him in his later years, culminating in the posthumous Religion der Vernunft aus den Quellen des Judentums (Religion of Reason out of the Sources of Judaism, 1919). Cohen intended to complete his system with a fourth volume, a psychology of what he called the "unity of cultural consciousness." This volume was never finished, however, as he died while correcting the proofs of Religion of Reason.

The essays in this volume, which gathers an impressive group of scholars from around the world, are organized along these focal points of Cohen's system: logic, ethics, aesthetics, and religion. While Cohen's philosophy, as well as that of Neo-Kantianism in general, has been receiving attention in continental Europe, scholarship in the English-speaking world has been rather scarce. This volume, as the editor emphasizes, is intended to fill this gap. It is a welcome addition to existing scholarship and will be received with interest by philosophers interested in Kant research and the fate of idealism in nineteenth- and twentieth-century philosophy. While the development of post-Kantian philosophy up to Hegel's death has been treated by English-language scholars (e.g., Frederick Beiser and Terry Pinkard), the second half of the nineteenth century, dominated by neo-Kantians and their "imperial stance" (Habermas), is only beginning to be rediscovered. It has become clear, for example, that the "parting of the ways" between Analytic and Continental philosophy cannot be understood without assessing the philosophical landscape around 1900, when Hermann Cohen was one of the most admired philosophers in Europe.

The essays in this volume make a compelling case for returning to Cohen, now some one hundred years after the publication of his System. The volume opens with an essay by Helmut Holzhey, director of the Cohen Archives in Zurich and the editor of the Collected Works. Holzhey shows how Cohen's critical philosophy, which culminated in his humanistic philosophy of culture in what could be called a philosophically-informed messianism, would have been impossible without Cohen's experiences as a Jew in Germany. Because of the Treitschke affair, Cohen was forced to take a stand on the role of Jews in Germany via his pamphlet, Bekenntnis zur Judenfrage (Confession Concerning the Jewish Question, 1880). Treitschke had denied Jews access to German culture, leading Cohen to assert Jewish identity as an ineradicable part of German society and culture. In this way, the hitherto rather agnostic Cohen rediscovered his Jewish roots and became an avid fighter against Anti-Semitism in Europe.

The essays in this volume give an excellent...

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