The Ethical Idealism and Prophetic Messianism of Hermann Cohen Hermann Cohen (1842 – 1918) was a German-Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism and intellectual precursor to the 20th century Jewish existentialist humanism of Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig and Emmanuel Levinas. Starting from the proposition that ethics had to be universal, Cohen outlined a Kantian (and non-Marxist) ethical socialism rooted in the prophetic vision of the

Lamech’s Revelation Lord, I have seen the inner workings of man and I am afraid. Poor and pathetic: he is corrupted from the start, living in a blasted world. But my eyes have seen the ark of salvation, which you have prepared in secret: my own son Noah, the justification of all that is to come. He knows the secrets of all living things. He was born in the night but came out perfect. He is my Adam on whom God will pour out His righteousness. The same God who will one day wipe