Morris Raphael Cohen, who taught philosophy at the City College of New York and who began life as the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, was one of the foremost Jewish intellectuals in America during the first half of the twentieth century. He expounded a philosophy of rationalism and realism in step with contemporary science and relevant to the social issues of his times and, through his books and teaching, had a widespread influence. His book, Reason and Nature (1931), offered a clear exposition and critique of the central concepts in science and sought to demonstrate that the scientific method required rational elements (mathematics and formal logic) no less than experimental procedures that appealed to sense experience.
