Mendelssohn: Reason and Feeling: A New Reading of Philosophy

This article sheds new light on Moses Mendelssohn, transcending traditional labels of rationalist or mediator. The author analyzes his project of 'Vollkommenheit'—objective perfection as the foundation of truth, beauty, and morality. The text details how Mendelssohn builds a bridge between cool reason and the affective sphere, using aesthetics as a tool for ethical education. We explore the mechanism by which beauty becomes a sensual intuition of truth, and the pursuit of perfection becomes a universal human obligation. This is a profound analysis of practical anthropology, which, in the age of fragmented modernity, regains its relevance as a proposal for a coherent human experience.