Moses Mendelssohn : A Biographical Study.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface -- 1: Years of Growth -- Childhood in Dessau -- The Early Years in Berlin -- The Budding Philosopher -- Lessing -- The Metaphysician -- The Bel Esprit -- A Learned Society -- Kohelet Mussar -- 2: Maturity and Fame -- Marriage and Family Life -- Thomas Abbt -- The Prize-Essay -- The Correspondence on the Vocation of Man -- The Phaedon -- Questions and Answers -- Cognate Hebrew Writings -- 3: Turning Point: The Lavater Affair -- Juif de Berlin -- The Prehistory of the Lavater Affair -- Lavater's Challenge and Mendelssohn's Reply -- First Reactions and Behind-the-Scene Activities -- Lavater's Reply and Mendelssohn's Epilogue -- Reverberations of the Conflict -- Literary Concerns and Another Lavater Episode -- 4: Changes in the Pattern of Life -- The Strange Illness -- Ups and Downs: A Chronicle of Events -- Hebraica and Judaica -- The Chronicle Continued -- Some Philosophical Preoccupations -- Friends in Unexpected Quarters -- 5: The Teacher -- The Avant-Garde of Haskala -- The German Translation of the Pentateuch -- Obstacles on the Road -- Completing the Work -- 6: Political Reformer -- Spokesman of his People -- Cooperation with Dohm -- A Momentous Event and a New Tract for the Times -- The Issue of Educational Reform -- The Summer of 1782 -- Jerusalem -- 7: Strains and Stresses -- Friendship with Lessing: The Last Phase -- A Projected Essay on Lessing's Character -- Jacobi's Attitude toward Mendelssohn: Antecedents of their Conflict -- An Uneasy Correspondence -- 8: Guardian of the Enlightenment -- The Contest -- Literary Activity: 1783-1785 -- Morning Hours -- In Combat -- The Social and Domestic Scene -- The End -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Index of Subjects and Names.

Professor Altmann quotes widely from personal letters and other contemporary documents in this biographical study of one of the most celebrated figures of the German Enlightenment. A considerable amount of the primary source material is offered in English translation.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.