The Critical Philosophy of Hermann Cohen (review)

134 SHOFAR Winter 1998 Vol. 16, No.2 community recognizing the fact that Israel is God's am segulah. In philosophical terms, it is the primordial ontological reality. We leave these discussions somewhat enlightened, somewhat bewildered. We feel as ifthe most precious intensity of faith and the highest peaks of human thought have come together to do homage to God, to lay before Him the two elements which characterize both man, the believer, and man, the thinker. The thinker and the believer joined happily with the politician to reveal how close the political is to human reality. In his Conclusion, Mittelman made the following observation: "In the end, the reality of politics, which the Jewish political tradition long recognized, caught up with the utopian, almost messianic, enthusiasm ofAgudah's Western founders" (p. 144). Where do we stand today? Perhaps a few of our Rabbis will begin to speak! William Kluback Kingsborough Community College Brooklyn, New York The Critical Philosophy of Hermann Cohen, by Andrea Poma, translated by John Denton. Albany: State University ofNew York Press, 1997. 320 pp. $21.95. Ten years ago, the Italian scholar, Andrea Poma, wrote a fundamental book on the philosopher Hermann Cohen. The Neo-Kantian school of philosophy was dying; the remains were collected by scholars, here and there, searching for dissertation topics. There has lately been some movement, the waters are stirred, and a few excellent books have emerged. Sadly, the works of the Italian scholar of Jewish philosophy in the twentieth century, Irene Kajon, have not appeared in English. Hopefully, something will be published. In France, recently, translations of Cohen's books on the relationship between religion and philosophy have been made. The sources ofthese books are Marc B. de Launay and Carole Promsky. In addition to the Religion der Vernunft, we have the fIrst translation ofDer Begriffder Religion im System der Philosophie, published in 1915 and dedicated to the school of Marburg. In French the volume is entitled La religion dans les limites de Ie philosophie. It was published in 1990. Every thinker who approaches Cohen is thankful to H. Holzhey for his two volumes, Cohen and Natorp (1986). I would also like to mention the recently published workofHartwig Wiedebach, Die Bedeutung der Nationalitiitfilr Hermann Cohen (1997). We owe to Wiederbach our gratitude for conferences on Cohen. This is vital if we are to encourage Cohen studies. I cite these books and authors because I believe that the interest in Cohen is not at an end. The belief in critical idealism has yet to bring forth new dimensions and perspectives in a philosophical world sinking into skepticism and fearing the term absurdity. With this translation of Andrea Poma's embracing work, we now have Book Reviews 135 available, to the English-speaking world, a scholarly book where previously there was a poverty ofmaterials. We quote more than we read, showing the ease of repetition. A small amount ofmaterial makes citation easily available. If we run quickly through the contents, I can imagine that there are chapters for every reader's preference, for those interested in Cohen's early work, Kant's Theorie der Erfahrung (1871), his relationship to A. Trendelenburg, K. Fischer, E. Troeltsch, W. Herrmann, E. Cassirer, and F. A. Lange. We admire the clarity ofPoma's work, the excellence of his notes, and the adequacy of the Index. We move from commentarIes on Kant to a vision of a redemptive messianism and history. Philosophy is lifted from epistemology to religious idealism. In its midst stands Cohen's belief in Judaism that seems to grow with the decades. It is in this beliefthat we capture the autobiographic Cohen, the Cohen who travels and experiences Jewish life in Poland and Russia in 1914. What beautiful stories come from these travels! Two years later, he left Marburg. He wrote a book of dedication. Cohen was a great believer in defiance of his philosophy. He loved Marburg. The world received from it great figures such as Ernst Cassirer and Henry Slonimsky, Pasternak, Nicolai Hartmann, but many who left him carried with them the consequences of their antisemitism. Europe witnessed a critical idealism never to be repeated. It came together with a universality that brought...