menu

Thinkers

Moses Mendelssohn

Jewish · Europe · 1729 to 1786

German Jewish thinker who urged toleration and the separation of state and faith.

What it is

Moses Mendelssohn (1729 to 1786) was a German Jewish philosopher, critic and translator. He argued for toleration, held that reason can support theism and the immortality of the soul, and worked to give Jews a place in German public life without giving up their faith.

He was born at Dessau and moved to Berlin in 1743, where he studied philosophy, and the metaphysics of Leibniz and Wolff shaped his thinking. He became a friend of the playwright Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, who used him as the model for the wise central figure in Nathan the Wise. He died in Berlin in 1786.

The main ideas

  • Reason and the soul. In Phaedo, or On the Immortality of the Soul (1767) he argued that the soul lives on. The title honours Plato's dialogue.
  • Reason and theism. He defended theism by argument.
  • Conscience cannot be forced. In Jerusalem (1783) he held that neither state nor church may compel what a person believes. The state may govern actions, but thoughts lie beyond its reach.
  • Tolerance. He promoted religious tolerance, and held that Judaism and universal reason are compatible.

What it looks like in practice

Imagine someone who is pressed by a neighbour to give up their faith or defend it in a public contest. Mendelssohn would decline the contest. He would say that belief cannot be forced by pressure, and that a wise society leaves each person free to hold their convictions. This is an illustration of his stance, not a passage from his writing.

Books and moments

  • Phaedo (1767) is a defence of the soul's immortality, and was his most celebrated work.
  • The Lavater affair. Johann Lavater challenged him to refute a Christian argument or become a Christian.
  • Translations. He translated the first five books of the Bible into German, a project meant to help Jews relate their own religious tradition to German culture. He also worked for the civil rights of Jews.
  • Jerusalem, or On Religious Power and Judaism (1783) is his case about conscience and the limits of the state.
  • Morning Hours (1785) was his final metaphysical work, written during a dispute over whether Lessing had followed Spinoza.

Questions and criticism

  • Does Jerusalem fit Jewish law? After the book appeared, some Jewish thinkers took exception to its argument that Judaism is a religion founded on reason alone.
  • Did Lessing follow Spinoza? In his last years he was drawn into a controversy over claims that his friend had held the pantheism of Spinoza.

Close neighbours

Gottfried Leibniz is the thinker whose metaphysics he built on, and Baruch Spinoza is the thinker at the centre of his last quarrel.

Written by epchē in our own words, and checked against independent sources on 29 October 2026. The sources are listed below.

Who they connect to

Influenced by

Other Jewish thinkers

Sources we used

See where you stand Find them on the map

Something wrong or missing on this page? Tell us.