Morris Cohen's Case for Liberalism

In: The review of politics, Band 33, Heft 4, S. 489-511

Abstract

While a few years ago there was a great deal of discussion of the "end of ideology" (or at least its "decline") among politically-minded intellectuals, today the more interesting topic appears to be the "end of liberalism" (or at least its condition of extreme "poverty"). Any intellectual case for liberalism may seem a bit out of fashion. The perspectives on liberalism that may be gathered from the thought of Morris Cohen constitute, however, a particularly important case. The eminent philosopher and historian of ideas, John Herman Randall, Jr., recently claimed that "Morris Cohen was the most critical analytic mind among all American philosophers. … Yet his voice of critical intelligence seems to have been almost completely forgotten in our present intellectual crises." Concerning Cohen's book on The Meaning of Human History, Randall suggests that its author's "insight could clarify the confusions of our own revolutionary feelings and passions." An examination of Morris Cohen's political thought appears to be timely.