‘Something Entirely Contingent’

Hermann Cohen’s Already Relativized A Priori

Bibliographic Data

ID24216477
AuthorsMarco Giovanelli (0000-0003-1342-6476, University of Turin)
Year2026
Pages1-22
Publication date2026-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueKantian Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-4154 • E-ISSN: 2044-2394
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1369415426101563
OpenAlexW7155022969
LanguageEN
References cited19

Among current endeavours to historicize Kantianism, two prevailing approaches are frequently discussed: Reichenbach’s ‘constitutive, but relative a priori ’ and Cassirer’s ‘regulative, but absolute a priori ’. This paper argues that this opposition is misleading, as it fails to fully appreciate the significant influence of Hermann Cohen in shaping Cassirer’s and, more generally, the ‘Marburg’ interpretation of Kant. The paper aims to demonstrate that Cohen’s interpretation of Kant is prominently centred around a relatively obscure passage from the Kritik der reinen Vernunft , in which Kant highlights that the possibility of experience is ‘something entirely contingent’ ( etwas ganz Zufälliges ). It suggests that Cohen argued for what might be called an ‘already relativized a priori ’: already in Kant’s philosophy, the necessity of the constitutive principles was recognized as being relative to ‘something entirely contingent’, i.e. , the historical fact of the science of nature.

A priori · Ernst Cassirer · Hermann Cohen · Kantian ethics · Marburg school · possibility of experience · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Kantian Philosophy and Modern Interpretations · Philosophy and Historical Thought

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