PHÉDON, OU ENTRETIENS SUR LA SPIRITUALITÉ ET L’IMMORTALITÉ DE L’AME.
Paris et Bayeux, chez Saillant et Lepelley, 1772. Item #43257
1st French-language edition. Period full leather binding with gilt spine and red edges with original marbled endpapers, 8vo. Includes frontis copperplate etching. XXIV + 342 + 1 pages. “Traduit de l’Allemand par M. Junker, de l’Académie des Belles-Lettres de Goettingen.”
This first French edition appeared 5 years after the first German edition of 1767
"Phaedon, or On the Immortality of the Soul" (Phaedon, Oder, Ueber Die Unsterblichkeit Der Seele, In Drey Gespraechen) is one of Mendelssohn's (1729-1786) most famous publications, establishing his reputation as the "German Socrates of Berlin." It is a philosophical interpretation of the Platonic dialogue "Phaedo" and is preceded by a biography on "The Life and Character of Socrates." The important German-Jewish philosopher was one of the most important representatives of the Enlightenment in Prussia and throughout Germany.
Mendelssohn's Phaedon is a “classic of rational psychology on the immortality of the human soul, a defining work by this leading enlightenment philosopher who launched the Jewish thinking of the modern age," with his tribute to Socrates modeled on Plato's dialogue the Phaedo.
Mendelssohn used Plato's famous dialogue, the Phaedo as a model to publish Phädon oder über die Unsterblichkeit der Seele. With this seminal work, "he reached the heights of fame" (Wigoder, Dictionary of Jewish Biography, 342).
The work unites Mendelssohn's "paean to Socrates with an elaboration of the dreadful personal, moral, and political implications if a person's life is her 'highest good'…
This 'classic of rational psychology,' as Dilthey put it, also contains an argument for the simplicity and immortality of the human soul, explicitly singled out for criticism by Kant in the 2nd edition of the Critique of Pure Reason. Mendelssohn supports the notion that the soul is simple and thus indestructible by noting that certain features of the soul, namely, the unifying character of consciousness and the identity of self-consciousness, cannot be derived from anything composite, whether those composite parts be capable or not of thinking…
As for the human soul's fate after death, Mendelssohn appeals to divine goodness and providence, which perhaps explains why, following the publication of the Phaedo, he finds himself needing to revisit the proofs for God's existence" (Stanford Encyclopedia).
According to Mendelssohn’s modern biographer Alexander Altmann, “The work that would establish Mendelssohn's world-wide renown and win him the title 'the German Socrates' was the dialogue [Phaedon], which was published in 1767. In this work, he presented Socratic wisdom from the mouth of the ancient philosopher, but in the language of the Enlightenment, that is in his own words as a modern philosopher.
The work drew both praise and criticism, but was on the whole popular in intellectual circles. It demonstrates Mendelssohn's unique ability as a Jew to be comfortable in the realm of both classical and enlightened philosophy, not to mention languages. David Sorkin remarks, ‘What is ironic is that Mendelssohn was known and revered as much for the quality of his prose as for his thought.”
Mendelssohn was himself often referred to as the German Plato or the German Socrates.
And “As a Jew living in Germany, Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786) stands at a pivotal point in the history of Jewish emancipation in Europe. There were Jews before him who had access to the corridors of power in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, but Mendelssohn represents the first to be socially accepted to a significant extent within enlightened German culture without converting.
He not only conformed to the culture of the German Enlightenment in many ways, but also helped shape the culture through his philosophical contributions. At the same time, Mendelssohn refused to turn away from traditional Judaism. He attempted to become a full- fledged member of society during the emergence of modern Europe, while remaining a proponent of Judaism as a revealed religion. Moreover, he sought to use his place of influence to encourage Jewish acculturation in Germany and to speak on behalf of the emancipation of Jewish people….
The traditional mentality of the European Jews prior to Mendelssohn's time included a kind of resignation to the incompatibility of Jewish learning and 'worldly' philosophy. This resignation contributed to Jewish cultural isolation. Alfred Jospe describes the conundrum in which a Jew found himself if he wished to enter the culture of the non-Jewish world: The Jew could gain access to the culture of the world only by rebelling against the traditional repudiation of all mundane wisdom.
It is just at this point that Mendelssohn broke the mold. He not only acquired modern German culture, but did so by means of his understanding of and contributions to the philosophy that shaped that culture. In his monumental biographical study, Alexander Altmann focuses as much on Mendelssohn's philosophy and his answers to contemporary critics as he does on the details of the events and influences of his life. Altmann states with appropriate admiration that, “Considering the state of degradation in which the Jewish population lived in eighteenth-century Germany... Mendelssohn's rise to fame and his acceptance into the republic of letters was an amazing feat of personal achievement.”
The amazing feature of Mendelssohn's achievement is that he accomplished it as an avowedly traditional Jew. Mendelssohn has been rightly described as a rabbinic scholar, but he made his reputation in non-Jewish intellectual circles as a literary critic and philosopher….with the help of both Gotthold Lessing and the Berlin publisher, Friedrich Nicolai, he was accepted into the inner circle of the Berlin Aufklärung.
His essays, reviews, and translations earned him tremendous status among German intellectuals.
The favorable comparison made by Lessing between the quintessential German poet, Goethe, and Mendelssohn is a mark of the esteem in which he was held. ‘[Lessing] told Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi that once Goethe regained his reason, he would be hardly more than an ordinary man. At the very same time he said of Mendelssohn that he was the most lucid thinker, the most excellent philosopher, and the best literary critic of the century’" (Clark, 2005. P. 57-58).
OCLC: 19939219.
Very light edgewear to front endpapers, touch of spotting, a gorgeous copy in the original leather binding with tooled gilt spine with raised bands and leather label. Beautiful and scarce. (B) (KH-10-30-RLB-’e).
Price: $525.00