科恩出生于安哈尔特的科斯维希。他早年开始学习哲学，很快就以对康德的深刻理解而小有名气。科恩曾就读于德绍的大学预科、布雷斯劳犹太神学院、布雷斯劳大学、柏林大学和哈勒大学。 1873年，科恩成为马堡大学哲学系的无薪讲师，论文题目是《康德前批判文章中的系统观念与批判观念论的关系》（ Die systematischen Begriffe in Kant's vorkritischen Schriften nach ihrem Verhältniss zum kritischen Idealismus）。 1875年科恩被选为马堡大学副教授，次年升为正教授（参见“德国学术系统”）。
1902年11月在柏林首次举行的“犹太教科学促进会”，科恩是创始人之一。
科恩编辑出版了弗里德里希·艾尔伯特·兰格（Friedrich Albert Lange）的最后哲学著作《逻辑学研究》（莱比锡，1877）。此外，科恩还编辑了兰格的《唯物主义史与对其当前重要性的批判》，并写了几个版本的长篇引言和批判性补充。
"Die Platonische Ideenlehre Psychologisch Entwickelt," in "Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie," 1866, iv. 9 ("Platonic Ideal Theorie Psychologically Developed")
"Mythologische Vorstellungen von Gott und Seele," ib. 1869 ("Mythological Concepts of God and the Soul")
"Die dichterische Phantasie und der Mechanismus des Bewusstseins," ib. 1869 ("Poetic Fantasy and Mechanisms of Consciousness")
Jüdische Schriften. Introduction by Franz Rosenzweig, edited by Bruno Strauss. Berlin, C. A. Schwetschke: 1924.
Excerpts have been published in English translation: Reason and Hope: Selections from the Jewish Writings of Hermann Cohen. Translated by Eva Jospe. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1993. (Originally published New York: Norton, 1971, in series: B'nai B'rith Jewish Heritage Classics, with additional material.)
"Zur Kontroverse zwischen Trendelenburg und Kuno Fischer," ib. 1871 ("On the controversy between Trendelenburg and Kuno Fischer")
Kant's Theorie der Erfahrung, Berlin, 1871; 2d ed., 1885 ("Kant's Theory of Experience").
[One central chapter of the 1885 edition is translated as 2015, "The Synthetic Principles," D. Hyder (trans.), in S. Luft (ed.), The Neo-Kantian Reader, Oxford: Routledge.]
Kant's Begründung der Ethik, Berlin, 1877 ("Kant's Foundations of Ethics")
"Platon's Ideenlehre und die Mathematik," Marburg, 1878 ("Mathematics and Theory of Platonic Ideals")
Das Prinzip der Infinitesimalmethode und seine Geschichte: ein Kapitel zur Grundlegung der Erkenntnisskritik, Berlin, 1883 ("The Principle of the Method of Infintesmals and its History: A Chapter Contributed to Critical Perception")
A short selection is translated as 2015, "Introduction," D. Hyder and L. Patton (trans.), in S. Luft (ed.), The Neo-Kantian Reader, Oxford: Routledge.
Religion der Vernunft aus den Quellen des Judentums. (1919, repr. Fourier: 1995)
Religion of Reason out of the Sources of Judaism. Translated, with an introduction, by Simon Kaplan. Introductory essay by Leo Strauss. New York: F. Ungar, 1972.
"Spinoza über Staat und Religion, Judentum und Christentum" (1915).
Spinoza on State and Religion, Judaism and Christianity. Translated and with an introduction by Robert S. Schine. Jerusalem: Shalem Press, 2014.
"Von Kant's Einfluss auf die Deutsche Kultur," Berlin, 1883 ("On Kant's Influence on German Culture")
Kant's Begründung der Aesthetik, Berlin, 1889 ("Kant's Foundations of Aesthetics")
"Zur Orientierung in den Losen Blättern aus Kant's Nachlass," in "Philosophische Monatshefte," 1890, xx. ("An Orientation to the Loose Pages from Kant's Literary Estate")
"Leopold Schmidt," in "Neue Jahrbücher für Philologie und Pädagogik," 1896, cliv.
Metzler Philosophical Lexikon, article on Hermann Cohen
Reiner Munk, Hermann Cohen's Critical Idealism. Dordrecht: Springer, 2005. ISBN978-1-4020-4046-7.
Irene Abigail Piccinini, Una guida fedele. L'influenza di Hermann Cohen sul pensiero di Leo Strauss. Torino: Trauben, 2007. ISBN978-88-89909-31-7.
Bienenstock, Myriam Cohen face à Rosenzweig. Débat sur la pensée allemande (Paris, Vrin, 2009)
Hermann Cohen: l'idéalisme critique aux prises avec le matérialisme (special issue of the journal Revue de métaphysique et de morale, ISSN 0035-1571), edited by Myriam Bienenstock, Paris, PUF, 2011, 141 pages.
Liisa Steinby, "Hermann Cohen and Bakhtin's early aesthetics," Studies in East European Thought, 63,3 (2011), 227–249.
George Y. Kohler, "Finding God's Purpose - Hermann Cohen's Use of Maimonides to Establish the Authority of Mosaic Law", in: Journal for Jewish Thought and Philosophy 18:1 (2010), p. 85–115.
Stéphane Moses (ed. et al.) Hermann Cohen's Philosophy of Religion; International Conference in Jerusalem 1996, Hildesheim 1997.
Steven Schwarzschild "Franz Rosenzweig's Anecdotes about Hermann Cohen", in: Gegenwart im Rückblick: Festgabe für die Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin 25 Jahre nach dem Neubeginn, ed. H. A. Strauss and K. R. Grossman, Heidelberg, 1970, S. 209–218.
Steven Schwarzschild "The Democratic Socialism of Hermann Cohen", HUCA 27 (1956).
Steven Schwarzschild "Germanism and Judaism - Hermann Cohen's Normative Paradigm of the German-Jewish Symbiosis", in: Jews and Germans from 1860 to 1933, ed. David Bronsen, Heidelberg 1979.
Andrea Poma, The Critical Philosophy of Hermann Cohen, Albany 1997.
Andrea Poma "Hermann Cohen: Judaism and Critical Idealism", in: Michael L. Morgan and Peter Eli Gordon (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Modern Jewish Philosophy, Cambridge 2007.
Michael Zank The Idea of Atonement in the Philosophy of Hermann Cohen, Providence 2000.
Almuth Bruckstein, Cohen's Ethics of Maimonides, translated with commentary, Madison, Wisc. 2004.
Lawrence Kaplan, "Hermann Cohen's Theory of Sacrifice", in: "Religion der Vernunft aus den Quellen des Judentums"; Tradition und Ursprungsdenken in Hermann Cohens Spätwerk;. (ed. Helmut Holzhey et al.), Hildesheim 2000.
Hermann-Cohen-Gesellschaft, promotes research on Hermann Cohen's work and help bring his philosophy to bear in the forum of current debate.
.jpg)
