Moses Mendelssohn

In Our Time: Philosophy

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 March 2012

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work and influence of the eighteenth-century philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. A prominent figure at the court of Frederick the Great, Mendelssohn was one of the most significant thinkers of his age. He came from a humble, but culturally rich background and his obvious intelligence was recognised from a young age and nurtured by the local rabbi where he lived in the town of Dessau in Prussia. Moses's learning earned him the sobriquet of the 'German Socrates' and he is considered to be one of the principal architects of the Haskala, the Jewish Enlightenment, and widely regarded as having helped bring Judaism into the mainstream of European culture. Mendelssohn is perhaps best remembered today for his efforts to bring Jewish and German culture closer together and for his plea for religious toleration.With:Christopher ClarkProfessor of Modern European History at the University of CambridgeAbigail GreenTutor and Fellow in History at the University of OxfordAdam SutcliffeSenior Lecturer in European History at King's College, London Producer: Natalia Fernandez.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for down learning the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:10.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:12.0	Hello in 1763 the philosopher Emmanuel Kant entered an essay competition organized by the Royal
0:18.0	Academy of Sciences in Berlin.
0:20.4	His effort was highly commended by the judges, but he came second.
0:23.4	The man who beat him to the top prize worked in a silk factory.
0:26.4	His name was Moses Mendelssohn.
0:28.4	Mendelssohn, grandfather of the composer Felix,
0:32.0	was one of the most brilliant thinkers of the 18th century.
0:35.1	He was a literary critic and philosopher whose works were translated into all the major European languages.
0:47.0	Mendelssohn was also one of the founding figures of modern Judaism, a man who translated the Hebrew scriptures into German, argued powerfully for religious tolerance and believed that European Jews should not live apart from the rest of society.
0:54.0	His writings exerted considerable influence and today is widely regarded as one of the key
0:58.8	architects of the Jewish Enlightenment.
1:01.0	With me to discuss the work of Moses Mendelssohn are Christopher Clark,
1:04.7	Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge, Abigail Green, Tudor
1:09.6	and Fellow in History at Brasnose College Oxford, and Adam Sutcliffe, senior lecturer in European
1:14.9	History at King's College London.
1:17.8	Chris Clark, we're talking about Prussia.
1:20.5	Mendelssohn was born in Prussia in 1729. What sort of place was Prussia before we particular
1:25.8	eyes on him?
1:26.8	Well in 1729 when Mendelssohn was born, Prussia is a pretty unremarkable place.
1:31.5	It's not the powerhouse it will later become and
	...

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