Talk:Moses Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn's grave stone
May I ask a simple question here? What is written on Mendelssohn's grave stone? Could anybody translate this? (and maybe add it to the caption?) Thanks! Claude --92.75.111.209 (talk) 20:15, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

family poor or wealthy?
the 2nd paragraph says that he was born into a poor family, but then it says that "the Berlin textile industry, which was the foundation of his family's wealth."

was his family poor or wealthy?

2601:6:5600:BE9C:55A7:C9E1:F919:6B14 (talk) 13:44, 8 May 2015 (UTC) Michael Christian
 * Good question, and I would have to check it better again with a little more time. My guess, off the bat, is that the family was poor around the time he was born, but had become much wealthier by the time he started studying philosophy. I.e., the family acquired a certain wealth as he grew up, which allowed him to branch from the study of rabbinics and into European philosophy of the time. But with the appropriate sources at hand, the text could be clarified and improved regarding this issue. I'll keep it in mind for when I have the time... warshy (¥¥) 14:38, 8 May 2015 (UTC)

The article is correct. He was born into a very poor family. He became tutor to wealthy Jewish families in Berlin, then became a book-keeper to one of his employers Isaac Bernhard, then became a partner in the business, which was the source of his wealth. This is all in the article if you read it - you don't need to guess.--Smerus (talk) 16:22, 8 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Good. Thanks! You just answered the anonymous editor's question above much better than me, by just reading the article itself. Kudos, both to you and to Wikipedia. warshy (¥¥) 16:35, 8 May 2015 (UTC)
 * The article about MM is insufficient, not elaborating on his philosophy and how he contributed together the Haskalah and how his theories contributed to decision of many German Jews to convert to Christianity. 96.242.4.211 (talk) 03:42, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 00:28, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

Zamoscz?
A refugee Pole, Zamoscz, taught him mathematics....
 * Who is this Zamoscz? I haven't found any references to him.
 * Zamość is of course a city in Poland that once had a significant Jewish community.
 * Sca (talk) 20:07, 30 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Seek and ye shall find. I have added citations.--Smerus (talk) 12:05, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

Haskalah
The lead of the article says, correctly imo, that MM was the source of many of the ideas of the Haskalah. But I think it is incrrect to credit him with being a member, or founder, of the 'Haskalah school' (and I have therefore reverted this reference in the infobox). The term Haskalah was only coined, retrospectively, in the 1860s. MM would have disagreed strongly with many of its "assimilationist" aspects (as he would have seen them). He had no 'school' of his own, although many Jewish philosophers of the enxt generation acknowledged his influence. That does not make him a member of the Haskalah movement. In passing, I would add that this is yet another example of the dangers of an infobox, which because it has not capacity to disucss detail risks passing on incorrect or misleading information to the reader--Smerus (talk) 08:01, 27 July 2020 (UTC).
 * I pretty much concur with the general gist of your remarks. Some scholars would definitely describe him as the "founder" or one of the the founders of the Haskalah (or the Jewish European 18th and 19th century "Enlightenment"). Or would perhaps rather argue that without the influence of his intellectual work the "school" might not have even started or existed in Judaism at all. But a "founder" cannot always be easily put on the ranks of the 'school' he founded, and in Mendelssohn's case this is probably true for the reasons you give. It is also true that infoboxes can be a simplistic, and as such misleading device, especially in cases of difficult philosophical nuances such as this one. But the main reason I agree with your removal of this specific line/tag in the infobox, is that in my view there is no rule that determines that a thinker must be put into a specifically named "school" in the infobox. In this particular case, I don't think the infobox suffers too much or becomes too incomplete or inappropriate by the lack of the "school" tag. warshy (¥¥) 18:23, 27 July 2020 (UTC)

Pope and Metaphysics
Is Alexander Pope meant by Mendelssohn and Lessing? Stephphie (talk) 15:07, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
 * I don't know. It is possible. But if you really want to check it, the material is referred to the 1911 edition on the Britannica. I'd check there first. warshy (¥¥) 15:18, 4 July 2022 (UTC)