Cohen and his Students

Comments by City College students appearing in the yearbook, Microcosm, attest to Cohen's popularity despite his rigorous Socratic questioning in the classroom. The 1934 Microcosm noted that the Department of Philosophy was "voted the most popular by the senior class...and containing the best known men on faculty..."

It also emphasized Cohen's popularity: "Professor Morris Raphael Cohen... he unfortunately took his leave during our senior year...we still can't forgive him for that...one of the great contemporary philosophers of our day a biting and caustic wit...twists his students inside out...and makes them think ..."

Earnest Nagel is also lauded as "the most promising young man in the department...one of the best Cohen students in the history of the College... recent recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship...took over Cohen's metaphysics and logic courses during the professor's leave of absence ... and did a swell job...teaches regularly at Columbia...but always leaves time to teach at least one class at Alma Mater."

Equally enthusiastic is the account of Cohen found in the 1935 Microcosm: "Dr. Overstreet may be chairman of the department, but to the cognoscenti there is but one God...and his prophet is Morris Raphael Cohen."

Also mentioned is his teaching style and sharp wit: "[His] philosophy derives from Aristotle, but his teaching method is Socratic...Why should I be interested in what you have to say? May I remind you that this is a course in philosophy, which may be defined as the study of the rules of correct thinking?"

Similar views were found in the 1936 Microcosm, which noted, "[It's] Morris R. Cohen who is `God' here." He is quoted as saying, "It's enough to clean out the Augean stables," a reference to Hercules' fifth labor. Nagel is called "the more logical half of `Cohen and Nagel."