Ricerc@Sapienza

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship that Karl Löwith had with Herman Cohen’s thought, examining its development from a historical and theoretical point of view. This confrontation proves fruitful both for a reconstruction of Löwithian philosophy and to gain – through the eyes of one of its interpreters – new perspectives for an understanding of the work of the Marburg school’s founder. Despite the continuous evolutions, occasioned by the developments in Löwith’s thought, the stakes in this meeting remain the need to think about the possibility of an ethical foundation to guide human action, whether this is in a transcendent God or in an immanent cosmos. Moreover, following the historical-political events of the twentieth century, the Cohenian idea of reconciling Judentum und Deutschtum becomes untenable for Löwith, which leads him to oppose his methodological scepticism and an anti -eschatological cosmology to faith in ethical progress and prophetism. Therefore, considering the above, the aim of this research is to
highlight the philosophical developments of this confrontation, which finds its richness in the interweaving of deep theoretical intuitions with dramatic existential considerations.