Phaedon, or On the Immortality of the Soul

Introduction

Mendelssohn’s “Phaedon” appeared in Berlin in 1767 in German. It is a dialogue in three parts: the first freely adapts Plato’s dialogue, the second and third replace Plato’s arguments with modern ones drawn from the philosophy of Leibniz and Wolff, for example that the soul as a simple substance cannot decay, and that a good God would not destroy rational beings. Socrates speaks as an eighteenth-century philosopher. The book went through several editions within a few years and was translated into many languages, earning Mendelssohn the name “the German Socrates”.

Connections

Builds on

• Phaedoc. 380 BCE · Plato

More works by Moses Mendelssohn

• 1783Jerusalem, or On Religious Power and Judaism