Judeo-German Nationalism and the Idea of a League of States : Hermann Cohen's Political Thought

Abstract

  This paper examines how two apparently contradictory sides of Hermann Cohen's political philosophy, namely, nationalism and the universalistic idea of a league of states (Staatenbund), are theoretically compatible. First, I examine how Cohen interprets the Old Testament and the Talmud to posit the universality of Judaism. Next, I explore his contention that a universalistic character similar to Judaism can be found in the modern state defined by so-called Ethical Socialism, especially in the German state. I conclude that this theory of the state led Cohen to regard the First World War as a just war for the Jews and Germans.

  With regard to Cohen's understanding of Judaism, the paper concentrates on his conception of the love of neighbors. He contends that “neighbor” in the Mosaic Law refers not to Jews, but to aliens residing in the Israeli state. According to Cohen, the Law which commanded love of these aliens (“Noachide”) granted citizenship in the old Israeli state to them, and so this state attained a universalistic liberalism. The paper pursues the connection between this theory of Noachide and Cohen's approval of the Diaspora. In order to be truly universalistic, Cohen argues, the modern Jews must not form a particular nation-state, but must themselves remain aliens in existing states.

  The paper then turns to Cohen's view of the modem state. He finds the universality of the modern state not in erasing the specificity of peoples, but in preserving and integrating a multiplicity of peoples. For Cohen, especially Germany, which embodied universalism through the principle of nation in the Reformation and in the wars of liberation against Napoleon, can do justice both to universalism and to the specificity of peoples. The German state thus succeeds to the old Israeli state in integrating aliens as citizen without assimilating them to the majority group. Cohen considers that this universalism of the Israeli-German state can become the basis for a principle of international order, that is, a league of states. Therefore, he regards Germany's national war as defending universalism and as preparing perpetual peace via a league of similarly-constituted states. The paper concludes, however, that his idea of a league of states fell into a just war theory, and that his universalism could not escape nationalism.