How transcendental is Cohen's critical idealism?
pp. 127-157
in: Halla Kim, Steven Hoeltzel (eds), Transcendental inquiry, Berlin, Springer, 2016Abstract
This chapter discusses Hermann Cohen's critical idealism and examines the extent to which it owes to, and goes beyond, Kant's transcendental philosophy. While remaining within the tradition of transcendental philosophy, Cohen goes well beyond Kant and reveals a new dimension of this philosophy. In his effort to rid the transcendental philosophy of its unpalatable psychological heritage, Cohen attempts to complete the transcendental method in a new way, by means of what might be called "the method of hypothesis" and the ensuing doctrine of origin. The chapter concludes that, in effectively abandoning the Kantian synthetic method in favor of the analytic method followed by the method of hypothesis, Cohen's critical idealism goes well beyond the purview of the Kantian project with his recourse to origin.
