Morris Raphael Cohen

COHEN, MORRIS RAPHAEL

Morris Raphael Cohen achieved prominence as
an educator and author.
Cohen was born July 25, 1880, in Minsk,
Russia. He emigrated to the United States in
1892 and earned a bachelor of science degree
from the College of the City of New York in 1900
and a doctor of philosophy degree from Harvard
University in 1906. Cohen was the father of Felix
Cohen, who became a somewhat noteworthy
philosopher/writer in the jurisprudential school
of LEGAL REALISM.
In 1899, Cohen began his teaching career as
a history teacher at the Educational Alliance in
New York.He also taught at Davidson Collegiate Institute from 1900 to 1901, and in 1902 he
accepted a position as mathematics teacher at
his alma mater, the College of the City of New
York. He held that position until 1912, when he
switched his interests to philosophy and served
as a professor until 1938. In that year, he
accepted a professorship at the University of
Chicago and continued his career as a philosophy
professor.
In addition to his permanent teaching
duties, Cohen also served at numerous institutions
as a temporary professor—including his
presentation of a series of lectures at Columbia
Law School from 1906 to 1907, 1914 to 1915, the
summer of 1918, and the summer of 1927; at
Yale from 1929 to 1931; and at Harvard from
1938 to 1939.
Cohen is the author of several noteworthy
publications, including Reason and Nature
(1931), Law and the Social Order (1933), and
Faith of a Liberal (1945).

He died January 28, 1947, in Washington, D.C.