Moses Mendelssohn (1729-86) is considered the father of the Jewish Enlightenment and the last great Leibnizian in the German philosophical tradition. One of his most successful works was this dialogue on the immortality of the soul, modelled on Plato's "Phaedo". Mendelssohn sought to recast Plato's proofs of the soul's immortality by adding "such arguments as are supplied by modern philosophy". Like its ancient ancestor, Mendelssohn's dialogue includes an account of the death of Socrates - an important figure in 18th-century Europe. ""Ph don": or, "The Death of Socrates"", originally published in German in 1767 and translated by Charles Cullen in 1789, has never been rendered into modern English. Cullen's translation is thus the only recourse for present-day scholars who cannot read German. It is long out of print and difficult to find, even in the largest academic libraries. Now that the Englishspeaking philosophical world is delving ever more deeply into the history of German philosophy, this facsimile of the 1789 edition - newly introduced by Curtis Bowman - should be widely welcomed.
- ISBN10 0405052820
- ISBN13 9780405052828
- Publish Date December 1973
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 18 October 2003
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Beaufort Books
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 218
- Language English