Moses Mendelssohn

Moses (Brace) Mendelssohn (1729, Dessau (Germany) - January 4th 1786), is a Philosophe German Juif .

Biography

Moses Mendelssohn is born with Dessau the September 6th 1729. His/her father, Mendel, ensure chichement his existence like Sofer (scribe-copyist of books). Probably badly nourished and rachitic, Moses becomes uneven in his young age. He is educated by his father and the local rabbi, David Fränkel, which teaches to him, in addition to the Bible and the Talmud, the philosophy of Maïmonide. When Rav Fränkel is recalled to Berlin, in 1743, its young pupil hastens to follow it. Although fighting permanently against precariousness, it finds time and energy to learn the Mathématiques near a Polish refugee, Zamosz, and the Latin is taught to him by a young Juif doctor. The most important part of its scholarship is however the fruit of its tireless efforts of self-educated training, at the point to make say to Graetz “which he learned at the same time the alphabet and philosophy”. As example, it could get a specimen of a Essai on the human understanding of John Locke, and controlled it using a Latin dictionary. It became acquainted then with Aaron Solomon Gumperz, which taught to him the rudiments of French and English.

In 1750, it was engaged like tutor by a negotiating silk rich person named Isaac Bernhard. This one, impressed by Mendelssohn made its accountant in quickly of it 1754, then its associate in 1761. After the death of Bernhard, it took again its business and actively directed the factory until its own death.

The year 1754 marked a turning in its life, when Gumperz - or Hess - presented Lessing to him. The meeting between the two would inspire later in Lessing that between Nathan Wise the and Saladin.

Lessing was the carry-flag of intellectual boiling and morals which agitated Berlin of the time (that of Frederic Large the). It already had begun its work of opening to the other, and had published a drama with the evocative name ( Die Juden , 1749), showing that a Juif could show nobility of character, which was far from being acquired or accepted at the time: Mendelssohn repésentait in its eyes the bright proof of its dires. It is in Lessing that Mendelssohn had the beginning of its public notoriety: indeed, Mendelssohn had written in German accessible a lampoon against the rejection from the local philosophers (mainly Gottfried Leibniz). Lessing appreciated it so much that it made it publish in an anonymous way at once, under the title of philosophical Conversations ( Philosophische Gespräche ), without same to have consulted Mendelssohn. One year later, appeared in Gdansk an anonymous satire, " Pope (English author), a métaphysicien" , which proved to be their joint work.

As from this time, will have it of Mendelssohn did not cease growing and extending. It became in the three years space (1756 - 1759) the leader of the important literary companies of Nicolai, namely the Bibliothek and the Literaturbriefe . It allowed some audacities by criticizing the poetry of the King de Prusse, which could badly have turned if Frederic were not so enlightened or moderate.

In 1762, it married Fromet Gugenheirn, which will survive to him 26 years.

The following year, it gained the bid price by the Academy of Berlin, by writing a test over the applications of the mathematical evidence to metaphysics. To note that among the various applicants were Thomas Abbt and Emmanuel Kant. It transcribed, moreover, a correspondence with the first, in 1767, giving the Phédon or of the immortality of the heart in three talks . Kant made mention in the second editions of its Critique of the pure reason and recognized of it the importance of its thought and its respect for the individual.

In 1769, the philosopher Johann Kaspar Lavater proposed in Mendelssohn to convert with Christianity, this last having shown of tolerance and opening in several of its preceding writings. The counterpart of this one was unambiguous in a letter which precedes its religious Jerusalem or capacity and Judaism . , published in 1783.

This same year, it completed the translation in German of the Torah

Thanks to the Marquis d' Argens, friend of Frederic II and philosopher him also, Mendelssohn accepted the statute of Jew protected extraordinary ( Außerordentlicher Schutz-Jude ) by the emperor, the third class of existence for a Jew in Berlin (it was in the sixth before). That enabled him to reside at Berlin without being disturbed because of its Jewish origins, but not to buy buildings or to pass this right to his/her children.

The thought

It is an important character of the European Judaism, and philosophy of the 18th century. It is recognized to be the father of the Haskala H (the movement of the Lights suitable for the Judaism).
For some, it was the " third Moïse" (Of Brace to Brace, it did not rise any like Moïse from there, and of Brace (Ben Maïmon) with Moïse Ben Mendel, it did not rise any like Moïse" from there;.
For others, it was among the igniters of the assimilationism of the Jews, precursor of the loss of their specific identity and the extinction of their traditions. What does not lend to the discussion it is that Mendelssohn fought for the conceptualization and the implementation of the tolerance to the strong direction of the text. Indeed, it writes its " Jerusalem" while having for goal to show well that the monk and the policy could not mix, instrumentaliser one the other. These are two distinct orders which are worried one of spiritual, concerned with the private sphere, whereas the other deals with the secular one, public. So the conclusion which it reaches is impossibility for the policy of supporting a religion, or of prohibiting some. This text, in spite of its interest nevertheless is strongly inspired by the letter on the tolerance of Locke.

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