Critical leibnizianism, hidden spinozism? Moses Mendelssohn’s Philosophische Gespräche

Abstract

The text that follows is an annotated translation of the Philosophical Dialogues (Philosophische Gespräche, 1755) by Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), preceded by an Introduction. The initial Introduction aims at outlining the intellectual context in which Mendelssohn wrote the Dialogues. Regarding the context, we emphasize in particular: (i) the influence that the Christian Wolff’s philosophy (1679-1750) had on the generation of German philosophers to which Mendelssohn belonged; (ii) the social and cultural peculiarities of the mid-18th century Berlin in which Mendelssohn lived and worked. The Introduction is followed by the translation proper. In order to facilitate the compre­hension of Mendelssohn’s text, the translation includes footnotes both to clarify obscure references and to note the changes that the work underwent because of its second edition in 1761. In addition, the most important German terms within the Dialogues are indi­cated between brackets.