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Moses Mendelssohn Biography

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MENDELSSOHN, mĕn'del-sōn, Moses (1729–86). A German philosopher of Jewish parentage. He was born Sept. 6, 1729, at Dessau. From his father, a schoolmaster and scribe, he received his first education; and in his thirteenth year proceeded to Berlin, where, amid very indigent circumstances, he contrived to learn Latin and modern languages and to apply himself to the study of philosophy. After many years of comparative poverty he became part heir to a rich silk manufacturer, whose children he had educated. The intimate friend of men like Lessing—whose Nathan der Weise had its prototype in him—Sulzer, and Nicolai, he contributed in a vast degree to the mitigation of the brutal prejudices against the Jews. On the other hand, he broadened the outlook of his own coreligionists. He died Jan. 4, 1786. His principal works are: Pope, ein Metaphysiker (1755), with Lessing; Briefe über die Empfindungen (1755) ; Ueber die Evidenz in den metaphysischen Wissenschaften; Phädon, oder über die Unsterblichkeit der Seele (1767); Jerusalem, oder über religiöse Macht und Judenthum (1783); Morgenstunden (1785). His works have been collected and edited by G. B. Mendelssohn (7 vols., Leipzig, 1843–45). Consult: Hensel, Die Familie Mendelssohn (9th ed., Berlin, 1898; Eng. trans., London, 1882); Kayserling, Moses Mendelssohn (Leipzig, 1882) ; Ritter, Mendelssohn und Lessing (Berlin, 1886) ; Dessauer, Der deutsche Plato (ib., 1879); Galestein, Moses Mendelssohn und die deutsche Æsthetik (Königsberg, 1904). His philosophy was of a rather superficial popular sort, whose aim was to find good reason for opinions currently regarded as correct.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XV (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 391-392.