ABSTRACT
This selection is taken from a pivotal chapter in a pivotal work for the legacy of the Jewish–German philosopher Hermann Cohen (1842–1918). By the time Begriffe der Religion (BR) was published in 1915, Cohen had completed his monumental neo-Kantian system of philosophy, he had retired from the University of Marburg, and he had been fêted by his contemporaries as one of Germany’s foremost philosophers and Jewish intellectuals. Yet, at this late stage in his career, Cohen seems to be re-evaluating the technical vocabulary and conceptual economy of his systemic philosophy in order to make space for religion in general (in BR) and for Judaism in particular (in his posthumously published magnum opus Religion of Reason out of the Sources of Judaism).
