Morris R. Cohen in Retrospect
By Ernest Nagel

Cohen's temper of mind was thus essentially sceptical, with a deeply ingrained distrust of romantic frenzy and undisciplined enthusiasm. But his scepticism did not take the form that human reason is inherently incapable of arriving at the truth, and that therefore some other mode of experience is to be used for penetrating to the nature of things. His scepticism was the scepticism of modern science which recognizes the fallibility of its method for acquiring knowledge, and acknowledges that no claim to possess the truth is beyond the range of further criticism. But though he embodied and sought to spread this sceptical temper, Cohen also maintained that the rational procedure illustrated most clearly and successfully in the modern sciences of nature is the best (because most dependable) method men have yet devised for arriving at responsibly held beliefs. He did not think the use of this method is the panacea for all human ills; for he believed that there are many things in the world beyond human power to remedy, and he had a keen sense of the tragic quality of human existence. But he also believed, surely not without good grounds, that much of the cruelty and injustice found among men is the product of behavior which is not informed by a rational analysis of its consequences.

Cohen was keenly aware that the life of reason is a difficult ar 1 precarious achievement; and he did not hide his fears that the always latent forces of unreason, uneasily dormant under the thin veneer of civilization, could easily be unleashed to destroy the most precious heritage of mankind. His fears were not entirely unjustified by the events; and he lived long enough to witness not only the wide acceptance of philosophies which teach the inferiority of reflective thought to instinct and intuition, but also the bitter practical fruits of such teachings. But throughout his life Cohen was an uncompromising foe of chthonian deities, in philosophy as in politics. He hated the brutish dogmatism of the unreasoning mind and the authoritarianism that issues from mere power. He disliked intellectual double-talk; and he had an undisguised contempt for thinkers who Cohen understood it, seeks to make explicit the logical articulation of claims to knowledge, the grounds of their credibility and validity, and the import of their content for an inclusive view of nature and man.