Oh wow, that's a stunning story. (In both good and bad ways.)
Moses at first didn't want to do it. He said: "It pains me that I should have to ask for the right of my existence, which should be given to every human being living as a decent citizen. If the state sees cause to tolerate people of my nation only in very limited numbers, why should I be privileged among my brethren to demand an exception?" However, Moses Mendelsohn's friends pointed out to him that he was the head of a family who had to take this step for their sake, as they depended on him. He finally was persuaded.
The most depressing aspect? The only one aware that the law itself is wrong (i.e. that the crux isn't that exceptions for great thinkers should be made) is Moses Mendelsohn. :(
Yeah. :( I gotta say I'm super impressed by Mendelssohn, though!
Like felis, I also appreciate the portrait of D'Argens, who does as you say seem super likeable <3
Okay, question that may hinge on translation:
Un philosophe mauvais catholique supplie un philosophe mauvais protestant, de donner le privilege a un philosophe mauvais juif.
I get the philosophe mauvais catholique and the philosophe mauvais protestant (also, I assume that "mauvais" modifies "catholique" rather than "philosophe"?), but is he just being clever/ironic/parallel by referring to Mendelssohn as un philosophe mauvais juif? I didn't get the impression that Mendelssohn was particularly non-devout, but maybe D'Argens is just making a joke there about his and Fritz's lack of piety, and just assumed Mendelssohn was the same?
I suspect so. Mendelsohn was a practicing Jew who did, for example, keep the laws re: food to the letter, and who later was claimed by both the orthodox and the reform movement in German-Jewish circles; however, he did also speak against some parts of Jewish orthodoxy, such as saying that the rabbinate should not have the right to punish Jews deviating form orthodoxy by legal measures (such as the expellation discussed above), and statements like Mendelsohn's saying that Judaism was less a "divine need, than a revealed life" were why later, younger German-Jewish writers like Heine saw him as a kind of Luther figure. However, I can see D'Argens making assumptions simply because Mendelssohn was an enlightenment philosopher. Or maybe he thought it would play better with Fritz than explaining Mendelsohn's more complicated brand of faith?
Btw, I assume you know about Moses' grandson Felix the composer, but do you know about his granddaughter Fanny, Felix' sister, also a composer? (And an illustration as to why the "there were no female Mozarts, were there?" argument is stupid, because Fanny is a rl illustration to Virginia Woolf's "Shakespeare's sister" essay?
I did know that Fanny was a composer, though I'd never played anything by her (hm, checking out your wiki link, probably because a lot of what she wrote was lieder or piano, and my piano repertoire is pretty limited), but I didn't know all that (or anything really) about her life. Wow. That's really interesting, and rather depressing in many ways, although according to the wiki article at least her husband seems to have supported her composing and publishing.
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Re: Moses Mendelsohn (aka Nicolai, Volume I, b)
Moses at first didn't want to do it. He said: "It pains me that I should have to ask for the right of my existence, which should be given to every human being living as a decent citizen. If the state sees cause to tolerate people of my nation only in very limited numbers, why should I be privileged among my brethren to demand an exception?"
However, Moses Mendelsohn's friends pointed out to him that he was the head of a family who had to take this step for their sake, as they depended on him. He finally was persuaded.
The most depressing aspect? The only one aware that the law itself is wrong (i.e. that the crux isn't that exceptions for great thinkers should be made) is Moses Mendelsohn. :(
Yeah. :( I gotta say I'm super impressed by Mendelssohn, though!
Like
Okay, question that may hinge on translation:
Un philosophe mauvais catholique supplie un philosophe mauvais protestant, de donner le privilege a un philosophe mauvais juif.
I get the philosophe mauvais catholique and the philosophe mauvais protestant (also, I assume that "mauvais" modifies "catholique" rather than "philosophe"?), but is he just being clever/ironic/parallel by referring to Mendelssohn as un philosophe mauvais juif? I didn't get the impression that Mendelssohn was particularly non-devout, but maybe D'Argens is just making a joke there about his and Fritz's lack of piety, and just assumed Mendelssohn was the same?
Re: Moses Mendelsohn (aka Nicolai, Volume I, b)
Btw, I assume you know about Moses' grandson Felix the composer, but do you know about his granddaughter Fanny, Felix' sister, also a composer? (And an illustration as to why the "there were no female Mozarts, were there?" argument is stupid, because Fanny is a rl illustration to Virginia Woolf's "Shakespeare's sister" essay?
Fanny Mendelssohn