Hermann Cohen: An Intellectual Biography

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Frederick C. Beiser (Professor of Philosophy, Professor of Philosophy, Syracuse University)

Hermann Cohen

An Intellectual Biography

Frederick C. Beiser (Professor of Philosophy, Professor of Philosophy, Syracuse University)

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English

Oxford University Press
18 October 2018

Biography: historical, political & military; Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900; Social & political philosophy; Philosophy of religion; Judaism: life & practice

This 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 Köhnke). 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.

By: Frederick C. Beiser (Professor of Philosophy Professor of Philosophy Syracuse University)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 242mm, Width: 164mm, Spine: 29mm
Weight: 748g
ISBN: 9780198828167
ISBN 10: 0198828160
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 18 October 2018
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Frederick C. Beiser was born and raised in the USA. He studied in the UK at Oriel College and Wolfson College, Oxford and then in Germany for many years, receiving stipends from the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung and the Humboldt Stiftung during that time. He has taught in many universities in the USA including Yale, Harvard, Penn, Wisconson, Colorado, and Indiana. Beiser is currently professor of philosophy at Syracuse University, New York. In 2015 the Bundespräsident Joachim Gauck awarded him the Bundesverdienstkreuz for his work on German philosophy.