SUFFERING AND JOY IN THE THOUGHT OF HERMANN COHEN

Abstract

While the central significance of the theme of suffering in Hermann Cohen’s Religion of Reason out of the Sources of Judaism has been properly emphasized in the scholarly literature, the important complementary theme of joy has been scantily explored. Interestingly enough, the prominent Cohen scholar, Andrea Poma, in an essay that touches directly on the theme of joy in Cohen’s thought, speaks not so much of joy, but of the minor, though related, theme of humor. I will, therefore, just briefly review Cohen’s teaching on suffering, following along the lines of Poma’s penetrating analyses in his major study, The Critical Philosophy of Hermann Cohen, my own contribution being limited to pulling the strands together and teasing out a few implications, and devote most of my attention to Cohen’s teaching on joy. Suffering is a critical phenomenon for Cohen’s ethical and religious thought, and Cohen views it as taking place on three levels. Before we examine each level individually, two general remarks must be made that are applicable to all three levels. First, on all three levels we must not approach the phenomenon of suffering from a causal perspective, for such an approach would result in either metaphysics, mysticism, or myth—or all three, heaven forfend! Rather, in all cases we must view suffering from the perspective of the role it plays in man’s fulfilment of the infinite moral task. Thus, Cohen fervently maintains that suffering should never be seen as a punishment inflicted by God on man. Certainly this is true for the suffering of one’s fellow man. And even one’s own suffering must be viewed, in Cohen’s words, as “the punishment that man demands inexorably of himself for himself” (p. 226). Second, on all three levels suffering refutes any form of eudemonism. To cite the famous or infamous criticism Cohen levelled against Zionism: “Those louts, they want to be happy!” Because, of course, the goal of man’s infinite moral task, for the sake of which the individual or nation assumes suffering upon himself or itself and responds to the suffering of others with compassion, is not happiness, but holiness. As I said, for Cohen suffering takes place on three levels. First, the level of the individual. Here, suffering is part of the sequence of sin, penitence, liberation, and redemption. To briefly present Cohen’s anal-