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Moses Mendelssohn

Moses Mendelssohn

The German philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786) was a major figure of the German Enlightenment. An intellectually emancipated and cultured German as well as a faithful Jew, he was referred to as the "German Socrates" and as the "Jewish Socrates."

Moses Mendelssohn was born on Sept. 6, 1729, in Dessau. He suffered from curvature of the spine. His father was a Torah scribe. The young man followed traditional Talmudic studies under Rabbi David Frankel, who introduced him to the thought of the medieval Jewish thinker Maimonides. In 1743 Mendelssohn's teacher received an appointment to Berlin, and the young student accompanied him. During the next years Mendelssohn's intellectual training expanded to include Latin, French, and English as well as mathematics and science.

At 21, Mendelssohn began a chain of fortunate associations. He became a tutor to the family of Isaac Bernhard, and he rose successively to bookkeeper and partner in a silk manufacturing firm. This position made him financially independent and left him free to follow his studies. Bernhard also introduced him to Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, the writer and dramatist. Lessing and Mendelssohn began a lifelong friendship and active collaboration. The noble and enlightened Jew in Lessing's famous comedy Nathan the Wise is modeled after the philosopher. Lessing encouraged Mendelssohn in his writing and arranged for the publication of his first essays and his translation of Jean Jacques Rousseau's Discourse on Unequality (1756). With Friedrich Nicolai, Mendelssohn edited a radical and popular magazine, Letters on Literature, which made Mendelssohn well known. In 1762 Mendelssohn married, and he and his wife eventually became the parents of six children. Two of his sons established a famous banking house, and the world-renowned composer Felix Mendelssohn was the philosopher's grandson.

In 1764 Mendelssohn competed against Immanuel Kant and won the Berlin Academy prize with an essay, "Evidence of Metaphysical Science." His main philosophic reputation stemmed from his influential treatises on esthetics and on the philosophy of religion. In 1776 he published a work on immortality. The Phaedo was modeled on Plato's dialogue of the same name. This book became the most popular work in German philosophy. Mendelssohn's writing skill was also reflected in his translation of the Pentateuch from Hebrew into German (1778-1783) as well as in Morning Hours (1785), a volume dealing with the existence of God.

The remainder of Mendelssohn's important work stemmed from two specific controversies. He was challenged by Christian writers either to convert or to explain the compatibility of his philosophy with Judaism. In a response to the Swiss theologian J. K. Lavater (1769) and in Jerusalem (1783) Mendelssohn attempted to interpret Judaism as a religion of reason available to all enlightened humanitarians. After Lessing's death, Lessing was attacked as an atheist, and Mendelssohn produced a series of writings in defense of his friend. Mendelssohn died in Berlin on Jan. 4, 1786.

Further Reading

The only work of Mendelssohn to appear recently in English translation is Jerusalem and Other Jewish Writings (1969). Secondary literature includes Hermann Walter, Moses Mendelssohn: Critic and Philosopher (1930), and a chapter on his philosophy in Jacob B. Agus, The Evolution of Jewish Thought: From Biblical Times to the Opening of the Modern Era (1959). □

Related newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles from HighBeam Research

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	Poetry With a Punch.(Book Review) Magazine article from: Sojourners Magazine; 3/1/2003; ; 700+ words ; ...Press. The Porcelain Apes of Moses Mendelssohn, by Jean Nordhaus; Milkweed...Nordhaus, The Porcelain Apes of Moses Mendelssohn. These poems are tesserae piecing...of the 18th-century figure Moses Mendelssohn--known as the Jewish Socrates... Read more
	Izhar Patkin at Holly Solomon. Magazine article from: Art in America; 2/1/1999; ; 456 words ; ...of three generations of the Mendelssohn family. Patriarch Moses was...amount of this porcelain. Moses Mendelssohn thus became the unwilling...the porcelain monkeys which Moses Mendelssohn was forced to purchase take... Read more
	A Portrait of Mendelssohn.(Book Review)(Brief Article) Magazine article from: American Music Teacher; 12/1/2003; ; 369 words ; A Portrait of Mendelssohn, by Clive Brown. Yale University Press...another standard biographical treatment of Mendelssohn will be pleasantly surprised by this thorough exploration of Mendelssohn--the man and the musician. Instead of following... Read more
	Narcissism and paranoia in the age of Goethe.(Brief article)(Book review) Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News; 11/1/2008; 136 words ; ...transformation. Years before Freud, they took the myth of Narcissus as a model. These writers, such as Goethe, Schiller and Moses Mendelssohn, were part of a male-centered culture that helped to develop a sense of German nationalism among the growing bourgeois... Read more
	Mendelssohn: A Life in Music.(Reviews)(Brief Article)(Book Review) Magazine article from: Contemporary Review; 7/1/2004; 191 words ; Mendelssohn: A Life in Music. R. Larry Todd. Oxford University Press...Lutheran). This is not the first biography to rehabilitate Mendelssohn's reputation but it is the first to make use of the...now available. It also draws heavily on the music of Mendelssohn's sister because of 'the light it sheds on the ... Read more
	Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor; Bruch: Romance in F for viola and orchestra; Violin Concerto No. 1.(Sound recording review) Magazine article from: Sensible Sound; 4/1/2008; ; 425 words ; Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor; Bruch: Romance in F for...pretty well-played music. Ms. Jansen approaches the Mendelssohn in a traditional manner, with her dexterity and poetic...many ways imitates, or at least pays tribute, to the Mendelssohn, and, as expected, Ms. Jansen brings it off well, too... Read more
	Symphony finishes season in style.(ENTERTAINMENT & LIFESTYLE) Newspaper article from: Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, MA); 5/5/2009; 537 words ; ...world-class talent in a rousing rendition of Mendelssohn's dizzily romping Piano Concerto No...out. He set a blitzkrieg pace in the Mendelssohn first movement and then sped things...displayed an amazingly mature mastery of Mendelssohn's melodic line. His articulation was... Read more
	Mendelssohn: Octet in E flat major, Op. 20; Bruch: Octet in B flat major.(Sound recording review) Magazine article from: Sensible Sound; 1/1/2007; ; 306 words ; Mendelssohn: Octet in E flat major, Op. 20; Bruch: Octet in B flat...Naxos 8.557270. Like so many musical geniuses, Felix Mendelssohn was a child prodigy, producing his famous Octet at the...wrote around the same time in 1825. Coupled with the Mendelssohn Octet is Max Bruch's Octet, composed in the year ... Read more
	The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn.(Brief Article)(Book Review) Magazine article from: Contemporary Review; 3/1/2005; 180 words ; The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn. Peter Mercer-Taylor, editor...revolves round the 'tensions' in Mendelssohn's life and music. The essays are...and looks at the historicism in Mendelssohn's music and at the composer as... Read more
	Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream.(Sound recording review) Magazine article from: The Christian Century; 12/12/2006; 56 words ; Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream. Previn, London Symphony. EMI Classics Encore, $6.99. Mendelssohn's bright, charming music for Shakespeare's play helps to underline the stage action and to provide entertainment between... Read more

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