"Critical Idealism and Messianism. From Hermann Cohen to Walter Benjamin and beyond", numero monografico di Paradigmi, XXXV anno, 1/2017, a cura di Tamara Tagliacozzo, Reinier Munk, Andrea Poma, issn 1120-3404, Rivista di Fascia A

The founder and head of the Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism, Hermann Cohen was a leading figure and a source of inspiration for a whole generation of German-Jewish thinkers from the late 19th to the early 20th century. Cohen’s epistemology – his critical idealism – was crucial not only for other members of the Marburg School such as Paul Natorp and Ernst Cassirer, but for anyone convinced, as Cohen was, that pure thought is pure because its origin is entirely within itself. Starting from his epistemology – the idea as hypothesis – Cohen devised an ethics in which moral progress occurs within the horizon of messianism. Messianism and messianic temporality are cornerstones not only for Cohen’s ethics and philosophy of religion, but also for authors such as Gershom Scholem and Walter Benjamin, Franz Rosenzweig and Martin Buber. Even today, Cohen’s legacy is far from exhausted, as the new century has seen a crescendo of interest reverberating from his work. This collection aims to reflect the vivacity of contemporary discussion on Cohen’s thought, especially ‒ but not exclusively ‒ in terms of his relations with one of the authors named above, Walter Benjamin.