The Messianic Imperative: Reason, Law, and the Ethics of Hermann Cohen This is a collated version of parts one, two and three of my mini-series on the Jewish neo-Kantian ethicist Hermann Cohen. The Messianic Imperative: Reason, Law, and the Ethics of Hermann Cohen Hermann Cohen (1842 – 1918) was a German-Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism and an intellectual precursor to the 20th century Jewish existentialist humanism of Martin Bu

Hermann Cohen and the Redemptive Potentiality of Sin Do I desire the death of the wicked? says the Lord God. Is it not rather in his repenting of his ways that he may live? […] Therefore, every man according to his ways I will judge you […] Cast away from yourselves all your transgressions whereby you have transgressed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit, and why should you die […] For I do not desire the death of him who dies, says the Lord God: so turn away an

Languages Are Outposts on the Outskirts of Being Languages are outposts on the outskirts of being. By voice and by text we perform raids on being, but we find it impossible to capture being in its entirety. Now we know these language-raids are in vain: There is no being to capture. Being is a spook that haunts our stations. Lately there'

The Correlation of Science and Ethics in Hermann Cohen's Philosophy Hermann Cohen (1842 – 1918) was a German-Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism and the intellectual precursor to the 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 He

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

WARNING: VERY EXPLICIT CONTENT. 18+ Der Aufklärer (The Enlightener) He watched her take a piss, using the online camera secreted in the pan of the toilet. She wiped herself from back to front, the ‘wrong way round,’ he thought. She did this twice. He masturbated hundreds of miles away and came in less than a minute. Dark thoughts gathered round him like crows, which he batted away. Now he had complete possession of the truth, obscene and pornographic. The motto all truth must

All Things Are Possible: A Brief Biography of Lev Shestov In 1936, two years before his death, the Jewish‑Russian philosopher Lev Shestov was invited by the Histadrut to deliver a series of lectures in Eretz Israel. He was warmly received by audiences in Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem — the city that, in his late thought, came to symbolise the liberation of the individual from the tyranny of rational necessity. And yet, despite the intensity of that reception, Shestov and his

Judaism, Panentheism and Spinoza’s Intellectual Love of God It is a popular misconception that Spinoza was a pantheist or even an atheist. He was not. Like the medieval Kabbalists, Spinoza was a panentheist. Judaism, Panentheism and Spinoza’s Intellectual Love of God Panentheism, meaning “all-in-God,” is situated somewhere between pantheism and classical theism. For pantheists, the world is identical to God, while for classical theists, the world is completely external to G

The Heterodox Judaism of Baruch Spinoza There is only one and unique substance in existence, a substance that is infinite, self-caused, and eternal. This substance is the spatio-temporal world. But it is also God, says Baruch Spinoza, the Sephardi Jew from Amsterdam excommunicated by the Talmud Torah congregation. The Heterodox Judaism of Baruch Spinoza Baruch Spinoza was born in 1632 in Amsterdam to a Sephardi Jewish family who had fled Portugal because of persecution by th

Simulation (Through the Looking Glass) “Observe this fagged-out world, this patch of chemical scum, where things – people, cats, tables, nouns, quarks – are in frozen flight from something we call ti esti. A laser of light on a lens or a little globe of acid in the petri dish should suffice – then we can write our final report. Lots of data but I don’t expect to be enlightened.”

Apeiron beginning; ur-reality: eternal, infinite, boundless, indefinite; yielding every thing through the actions of opposites: hot-cold, wet-dry, soul-body, one-many; and in time will decohere & return to the infinite beginning: genesis and decay, ceaseless becoming

Spinoza's Hatchet For the sole perfection and the final end of a slave and of a tool is this, that they duly fulfill the task imposed on them. For example, if a carpenter, while doing some work, finds his Hatchet of excellent service, then this Hatchet has thereby attained its end and perfection; but if he should think: this Hatchet has rendered me such good service now, therefore I shall let it rest, and exact no further service from it, then precisely this Hatchet would fai

In Praise of the Apollonian In Greek mythology, Apollo and Dionysus are both sons of Zeus. Apollo is the god of reason, light and order, while Dionysus is the god of wine, intoxication and ritual madness. Many philosophers and writers have invoked the Apollonian and Dionysian. Nietzsche, of course, employed the concept in The Birth of Tragedy. In the literary and philosophical sense, the Apollonian represents individuality and celebrates creativity through reason and logic.

What Is Flat Poetics? Flat poetics is derived from a recent development in metaphysical philosophy called object-oriented philosophy, also known as object-oriented ontology. Object-oriented ontology is anthrodecentric and anti-correlationist. It radically challenges the Kantian (and post-Kantian) human–world correlate. Objects do not merely exist in relation to humans but are ontologically concrete and worthy of investigation in and of themselves. To put it another way, hum

Angling Angling from eternity to eternity to eternity Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 29, discovered 1897, Pennsylvania If a straight line be cut into equal and unequal segments […] equal to the square on the half He was convicted by Ælfwald smuggling liquor, narcotics from Juteland to Norfolk Set down his pen set down this hook <0, Sa; if a ≠ b, then Sa ≠ Sb> Set fire to his craft and drowned say Euclid (Reign of Ptolemy I) First Plato then Spinoza

Sophia among the Philosophers (excerpt from Discourse in the Garden) [Disguised.] Yes, it is I. In I come, out I go. Yes, I am it. It writes. I will write a supplication. Here. Now. As follows. And in that hall there was a cruel prison (which men don’t call fayre), a place of wasted time. [SOPHIA stops.] No, wait... Life is not growing like a tree and love is not to be had. God, our help, consider us when we pass. God, whose shrine stands in that hall, receive these

Discourse in the Garden: A Short Drama An olive grove. Night. The sound of approaching footsteps. SOCRATES: ‘Swounds! A dark day for strong flowers and cool breezes. Can you deny it? PLATO: Are you spreching to me, sir? SOCRATES: I am, almost certainly. [Sits beside PLATO.] Call me I am. PLATO: Ha! Welcome. Call me anything you like. I’ll deny it later. SOCRATES: Ho! I’ve only lived the one life. Where next? Should I go on? PLATO: Always going on. Even when you’re half dead.