The Spinoza Conversations Between Lessing and Jacobi: Text with Excerpts from the Ensuing Controversy

Lessing’s Spinozism looms up out of the numerous intellectual riddles of the past. Almost everything has been tried in an effort to sound and weigh the exact amount of Spinozism Lessing betrayed in his conversations with Jacobi. This volume contains in translation the main writings relative to the famous ‘pantheism debate’ between Jacobi and Mendelssohn, which was prompted by Jacobi’s revelation of the Spinozist leanings of the late Lessing. The Introduction provides the context of the debate and draws upon recent studies of ‘Lessing’s Spinozism’ in an attempt to unravel the murky question of Lessing’s philosophical legacy. Co-published with McMaster University