Abstract

The Autobiography of Morris Cohen

This article presents information regarding the books "A Dreamer's Journey" and "Studies in Philosophy and Science," both by Morris Raphael Cohen. The republication, under the title of "Studies in Philosophy and Science," of his scattered essays, most of which appeared in technical journals between 1910 and 1940 but which are readable beyond most of the pages in those periodicals, witnesses the range of his knowledge and the untiring ferocity of his analysis. "A Dreamer's Journey" is the autobiography of Cohen. In this book especially rich are the chapters on his boyhood in Russia, his first experiences in New York, and the association with Thomas Davidson. Four chapters grouped under the heading Jewish Social Studies and American Democracy are stalwart affirmations of liberalism, but in them the narrative interest is sacrificed to an argument that comes close to special pleading.