Hermann Cohen (1842-1918) was born in Coswig, a town in central Germany with a small Jewish community. Despite its size, in 1800 the community received permission to build a synagogue on the same street where the Cohens would later live. Hermann’s father was both the cantor and the teacher of the community’s youth. The Cohen family home reflected traditional Jewish values. Gerson and Friederike Cohen, on Shabbat, welcomed Jewish travelers passing through the town. It was customary for the father to engage his guests in Talmudic discussions at the end of dinner. It was in this environment that Hermann’s deep Jewish roots were forged, which gave him a vast knowledge of Judaism and motivated him to take an active stance against antisemitism. Hermann studied at the Dessau Gymnasium, the Breslau Theological Seminary, and the universities of Breslau, Berlin, and Halle. He was one of the founders of the “Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaft des Judenthums«, the Society for the Study of the Science of Judaism. In 1873, he began his career as a professor at the University of Marburg. It was there that he wrote most of his works on mathematics and neo-Kantian philosophy. He died in Berlin in 1918.

Cohen wrote two books and more than sixty articles on Jewish philosophy. In them, he argues that the goal of religion is to fill in those aspects that define a moral life and that are beyond the capabilities of philosophy, such as, for example, understanding sin, revelation, repentance, anguish, and guilt. Philosophy only defines the universal, so it cannot deal with these kinds of concepts that arise only in relation to the individual. Therefore, it is religion, not philosophy, that teaches a person to be ethical, to face guilt, and to repent of their actions without abandoning their moral responsibility.

Cohen viewed Judaism as the purest monotheistic religion. He understood it as the religion of reason that would put an end to paganism and myths and ideally lead us to a world where ethical values ​​would be universal. He understood Judaism as the religion of ethical monotheism. He saw the coming of the Messiah more as the final stage in the development of a Jewish social ethic than as the arrival of a redeemer. He agreed with Kant that ethics should be universal.

Hermann Cohen’s influence on 19th-century Jewish philosophy was enormous. His emphasis on the universal ethics of Judaism, as the instrument for improving the world, allowed for the integration of Jews into modern society, but without losing their particularities. As a scientist, Cohen saw how the laws of the physical world are immutable, but ethical principles depend on human will for them to be fulfilled. He saw in God the rational explanation for why those principles should be adhered to. God and humankind are partners in the creation of a humanity governed by universal ethical principles.

Hermann Cohen significantly influenced the work of Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig. He differed with Buber, as he did not believe Zionism was the solution. He was an idealist: for him, ideas, principles, and values ​​took priority over reality. Hermann Cohen saw the world as what it could or should be, unlike those who only see it as it is.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: An Introduction to Modern Jewish Philosophy by N. M. Samuelson and other sources.