Philosopher
Moses Mendelssohn
Overview
Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the Haskalah, or 'Jewish Enlightenment' of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Born to a poor Jewish family in Dessau, Principality of Anhalt, and originally destined for a rabbinical career, Mendelssohn educated himself in German thought and literature. Through his writings on philosophy and religion he came to be regarded as a leading cultural figure of his time by both Christian and Jewish inhabitants of German-speaking Europe and beyond. His involvement in the Berlin textile industry formed the foundation of his family's wealth.
His descendants include the composers Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn; Felix's son, chemist Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy; Fanny's grandsons, Paul and Kurt Hensel; and the founders of the Mendelssohn & Co. banking house.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Philosophers who discussed Moses Mendelssohn
- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
- Giordano Bruno
- Immanuel Kant
- Saadia Gaon
- Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi
- Johann Georg Hamann
- Jews
- Johann Gottfried Herder
- Baruch Spinoza
- Moses Hess
- Hannah Arendt
- Max Bernhard Weinstein
- Paul Hensel
- Salomon Maimon
- Leonard Nelson
- Moritz Lazarus
- Johann Augustus Eberhard
- Thomas Abbt
- Jedaiah ben Abraham Bedersi
Ideas Moses Mendelssohn discusses
- Heinrich Heine
- Epilepsy
- Germany
- German language
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
- Phaedo
- Hebrew language
- Philosophy
- An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
- Immanuel Kant
- Atheism
- Judaism
- John Locke
- Latin
- Metaphysics
- Friedrich Schlegel
- Monarchy
- Maimonides
- Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi
- New Testament
- Plato
- Philosophy of religion
- Haskalah
Place in the tradition
Part of German philosophy.