From his early philosophical writings on Kant in the 1870s to his late writings on Judaism, Hermann Cohen’s philosophical method relied on establishing the proper relationship between philosophy and philology. Influenced by the historical methods of both classical philology and the Wissenschaft des Judentums, Cohen brought philological methods to his study of Kant and the history of philosophy. Later, he would bring his training in classical and modern philosophy to the study of Judaism, to establish modern methods for reading Jewish sacred texts not only philologically but also philosophically. This lecture will examine the relationship between philosophy and philology in Cohen’s thought and the hermeneutical method that emerged from this approach, through examples from both his philosophical and Jewish writings.

Shira Billet is assistant professor of Jewish Thought and Ethics at JTS, academic director of JTS’s Hendel Center for Ethics and Justice.