Hermann Cohen

Hermann Cohen (1842-1918), German Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of the Neo-Kantian school at Marburg. Born in Koswig, he studied at the universities of Breslau and Berlin and graduated from Halle in 1865. He taught at Marburg from 1876 to 1912. Cohen is noted for his commentaries on Immanuel Kant, written over some 40 years, notably his Kant’s Theorie der Erfahrung (Kant’s Theory of Empirical Knowledge, 1871). Other works include Die Logik der Reinen Erkenntnis (The Logic of Pure Knowledge, 1902), System der Philosophie (A System of Philosophy, 1902-1906), and Der Begriff der Religion im System der Philosophie (The Concept of Religion in Systematic Philosophy, 1915).

Cohen’s logical refinement of Kant’s transcendental method was received with both scepticism and admiration (see Transcendentalism). He held that Kant’s ethical idealism and Jewish theology are essentially identical, but also that personal religious beliefs are properly outside the jurisdiction of philosophy.