Voltaire, a Metaphysician!
In the 1771 edition of Moses Mendelssohn’s Philosophische Gespräche, the third dialogue from the 1755 edition was almost completely rewritten: instead of featuring Pierre Bayle as a leading character and praising his critical approach to (Leibnizian) metaphysics, Mendelssohn instead decided to mount...
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| Format: | other |
| Status: | Published version |
| Publication Date: | 2025 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repository: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:dnet:digitalcsic_::e95a2488730e2849a3f06c05d7d10beb |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/430502 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Leibnizian-Wolffian philosophy Optimism Moses Mendelssohn Pierre Bayle Voltaire Philosophers |
| Summary: | In the 1771 edition of Moses Mendelssohn’s Philosophische Gespräche, the third dialogue from the 1755 edition was almost completely rewritten: instead of featuring Pierre Bayle as a leading character and praising his critical approach to (Leibnizian) metaphysics, Mendelssohn instead decided to mount a defence of Leibnizian metaphysics against Voltaire’s Candide (1759). The goal of this paper is to explain Mendelssohn’s move by arguing (i) that his rewriting of the third dialogue was specifically intended to strengthen his defence of Leibnizian metaphysics against the criticism of it in Voltaire’s Candide and (ii) that this move must not be understood as a dismissal of sceptical approaches to philosophy, but rather as an attempt to give a better account of Leibnizian metaphysics and its importance for morals without incidentally denying its theoretical problems. The paper will therefore consist of the following four parts: an introduction to the subject matter; a section on Mendelssohn’s intellectual development and the sense in which Voltaire’s Candide challenged his views; an account of Mendelssohn’s 1771 refutation of Voltaire; and a final overview. |
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