Abstract:
In his Morning Hours, a mere four years after the publication of the first edition of the Critique of Pure Reason, Moses Mendelssohn provided an accurate and complete refutation of Kant’s criticism of the ontological argument. In this paper, I expound the way in which both Kant and Mendelssohn conceive of the ontological proof. Later, I analyse Mendelssohn’s discussion of the three possible forms in which Kant’s main objection to the argument can be presented, as identified by Mendelssohn himself. I conclude that Mendelssohn’s defence of the ontological proof, far from being an attempt to reduce the question to a mere verbal dispute, seems to succeed in drastically limiting the value and scope of Kant’s criticism of speculative theology.
- JA
Gesammelte Schriften. Jubiläumsausgabe. Berlin 1929–; Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1971–.
Citations with indications of volume number, followed by a colon and page number.
- AdFL
An die Freunde Lessings (JA 3.2). Edited by Leo Strauss.
English version: To the Friends of Lessing. In: Mendelssohn, Moses: Last Works. Translated, with an Introduction and Commentary by Bruce Rosenstock. Urbana-Chicago-Springfield 2012.
- Bw
Briefwechsel (JA 11–13). Edited by Bruno Strauss and Alexander Altmann.
- DG
“Das Dasein Gottes a priori erwiesen” (JA 12.2).
Published as enclosure to the letter to Daniel Schumann, Johann Bernhard Basedow and Marcus Herz, early May 1788. In: Briefwechsel. Edited by Alexander Altmann.
The translations of this essay are mine.
- EMW
Abhandlung über die Evidenz in Metaphysische Wissenschaften (JA 2). Edited by Fritz Bambergen and Leo Strauss.
English version: On Evidence in Metaphysical Sciences. In: Mendelssohn, Moses: Philosophical Writings. Translated and edited by Daniel O. Dahlstrom. Cambridge 1997.
- MVDG
Morgenstunden, oder Vorlesungen über das Daseyn Gottes (JA 3.2). Edited by Leo Strauss.
English version: Mendelssohn, Moses: Morning Hours. Lectures on God’s Existence. Translated by Daniel O. Dahlstrom and Corey Dyck. Amsterdam-New York 2011.
© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
