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Suffering and Non-Eschatological Messianism in Hermann Cohen

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Hermann Cohen’s Critical Idealism

Part of the book series: Amsterdam Studies in Jewish Thought ((ASJT,volume 10))

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References

  1. H. Cohen, ‘Die Messiasidee’, in: Jüdische Schriften I, 114.

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  2. Cf. ‘Die Messiasidee’, 114.

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  3. See, for example, H. Cohen, Kants Begründung der Ethik, 351ff.

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  4. I. Kant, Kritik der praktischen Vernunft, 117; Eng. transl. by Lewis White Beck (New York, 19933), 124.

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  5. Kant, Kritik der praktischen Vernunft, 117; Eng. transl., 124.

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  6. Kritik der praktischen Vernunft, 118; Eng. transl., 125. See also the note in Kritik der praktischen Vernunft, 123; Eng. trans., 130. See also the distinction between ‘moral happiness’ and ‘material happiness’ in Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft, Akademie Ausgabe, vol. 6, 67f.: ‘worunter [die moralisch Glückseligkeit] hier nicht die Versicherung eines immerwährenden Besitzes der Zufriedenheit mit seinem physischen Zustande (Befreiung von Übeln und Genuß immer wachsender Vergnügen), als der physischen Glückseligkeit, sondern von der Wirklichkeit und Beharrlichkeit einer im Guten immer fortrückenden (nie daraus fallenden) Gesinnung verstanden wird; denn das beständige “Trachten nach dem Reiche Gottes”, wenn man nur von der Unveränderlichkeit einer solchen Gesinnung fest versichert wäre, würde eben so viel sein, als sich schon im Besitz dieses Reichs zu wissen, da denn der so gesinnte Mensch schon von selbst vertrauen würde, daß ihm “das Übrige alles (was physische Glückseligkeit betrifft) zufallen werde”’.

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  7. Kritik der praktischen Vernunft, 124; Eng. transl., 131.

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  8. Kritik der praktischen Vernunft, 128f.; Eng. transl., 135.

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  9. ‘Die Messiasidee’, 107f.

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  10. Cf. H. Cohen, ‘Charakteristik der Ethik Maimunis’, in: Jüdische Schriften III, 280f.

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  11. Cf. ‘Die Messiasidee’, 117f.; see also Religion der Vernunft, 291, 361; English translation by Simon Kaplan, Religion of Reason Out Of the Sources Of Judaism (New York, 1971), 249, 310f.

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  12. Cf. ‘Die Messiasidee’, 117f.

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  13. Cf. Religion der Vernunft, Chap. XV, 344ff; Eng. transl., 296ff.

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  14. Cf. ‘Die Messiasidee’, 115ff; Religion der Vernunft 290f.; Eng. transl., 249.

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  15. See, for example, Kants Begründung der Ethik, 351: ‘The simple question: “how is the supreme good practically possible?” is bad. There are no more questions. What is needed in the face of the forum of practical pure reason is therefore practically possible. Our human efforts are unimportant, as are cultural conditions and the whole of nature. all our experiential knowledge desired to find its limits and it found them in the realm of ends.’

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  16. Cohen, ‘Charakteristik der Ethik Maimunis’, 283f.: ‘The idealization of this world in messianic time corresponds to the sublimation of the next world. The distinction between the two, the elimination of their identity, establishes their ethical link, where they complete each other. Despite all of Israel’s political fears and tribulations, yearning for the Messiah could not lose its meaning for humanity, but scepsis and mysticism here have transformed the future into utopianism. Maimonides saw ancient eudaemonism in this utopianism of the Arab political novel, just as Thomas More was a historical eudaemonist. Maimonides was able to use the ethicized next world in self-fulfillment for the messianic age, making the latter the preparation for the former. Hoping for this, arranging and ensuring self-fulfillment means acknowledging the idea of the Messiah.’

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  17. Religion der Vernunft, 21; Eng. transl., 19.

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  18. Religion der Vernunft, 268; Eng. transl., 230.

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  19. Religion der Vernunft, 274; Eng. transl., 235.

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  20. Cf. Religion der Vernunft, 302; Eng. transl., 259

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  21. Religion der Vernunft, 302; Eng. transl., 259.

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  22. ‘For “man doth not live by bread only”. Bread stands here for earthly happiness in general. This saying wards off the idea of eudaemonism. The value of human life lies not in happiness but rather in suffering’, Religion der Vernunft, 307; Eng. transl., 263.

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  23. Religion der Vernunft, 246, 308; Eng. transl., 149, 263f.

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  24. Religion der Vernunft, 309; Eng. transl., 264f.

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  25. ‘It does not have to be the case, and certainly it shall be different in the future, that there should be only tragic representatives of morality. This is a conception of dramatic poetry, to which ethics in no way has to consent.’, Religion der Vernunft, 309; Eng. transl., 265.

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  26. Religion der Vernunft, 309f.; Eng. transl., 265.

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  27. Cf. Religion der Vernunft, 310; Eng. transl., 266.

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  28. Religion der Vernunft, 312f.; Eng. transl., 268; cf. also 311–313, 330, 332, 333; Eng. transl., 266–268, 283f., 285, 286.

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  29. Cf. Religion der Vernunft 313; Eng. transl., 268.

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  30. Religion der Vernunft, 319f., 321, 331; Eng. transl., 274, 275, 284.

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  31. Cf. Religion der Vernunft, 344ff.; Eng. transl., 296ff.

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  32. ‘Die Messiasidee’, 117f.

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  33. Ethik, 424.

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  34. Religion der Vernunft, 268f.; Eng. transl., 230f.

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  35. Religion der Vernunft, 342; Eng. transl., 293.

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  36. Kritik der praktischen Vernunft, 117.

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  37. Kritik der praktischen Vernunft, 118.

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  38. Kritik der praktischen Vernunft, 118.

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  39. Cf. Religion der Vernunft, 527–531; Eng. transl., 456–460.

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  40. Cf. Religion der Vernunft, 529f.; Eng. transl., 458f.

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  41. Religion der Vernunft, 531f.; Eng. transl., 460.

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  42. Cf. Religion der Vernunft, 532f.; Eng. transl., 461f.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Turino, Italy

    Andrea Poma

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  1. Andrea Poma
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Leiden, The Netherlands

    Reinier Munk

  2. Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Reinier Munk

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Poma, A. (2005). Suffering and Non-Eschatological Messianism in Hermann Cohen. In: Munk, R. (eds) Hermann Cohen’s Critical Idealism. Amsterdam Studies in Jewish Thought, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4047-4_16

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