moses mendelssohn

English - English

Definition of moses mendelssohn in English English dictionary

orig. Moses ben Menachem born Sept. 26, 1729, Dessau, Anhalt died Jan. 4, 1786, Berlin, Prussia German Jewish philosopher and scholar. The son of an impoverished scribe, he began his career as a tutor but eventually won fame for his philosophical writings, which would become influential among the 19th-century U.S. Transcendentalists. He combined Judaism with the rationalism of the Enlightenment, becoming one of the principal figures in the Haskala, which helped bring Jews into the mainstream of European culture. His works include Phädon (1767), a defense of the immortality of the soul, and Jerusalem (1783), on the relationship of religion and the state. His friend Gotthold Lessing based the protagonist of his celebrated drama Nathan the Wise on Mendelssohn. He was the grandfather of the composer Felix Mendelssohn

Hyphenation

Mo·ses Men·dels·sohn

Turkish pronunciation

mōzıs mendılsın

Pronunciation

/ˈmōzəs ˈmendəlsən/ /ˈmoʊzəs ˈmɛndəlsən/