Salomon Maimon - Wikipedia Salomon Maimon From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Salomon Maimon Salomon Maimon Born Shlomo ben Joshua[1] 1753 Zhukov Borok near Mir, Lithuania, Poland-Lithuania Died 22 November 1800 Siegersdorf near Freystadt in Schlesien, Silesia, Habsburg Monarchy Education Gymnasium Christianeum Era 18th-century philosophy Region Western philosophy School German idealism German skepticism[2] Main interests Epistemology, metaphysics, ethics Notable ideas Critique of Kant's quid juris and quid factis,[1] the Doctrine of Differentials (die Lehre vom Differential),[1] the Principle of Determinability (der Satz der Bestimmbarkeit)[1][3] Influences Maimonides · Kant · Reinhold · Hume · Leibniz · Wolff · Spinoza Influenced Reinhold · Fichte[4] · Deleuze[5] Salomon Maimon (/ˈmaɪmɒn/; German: [ˈmaɪmoːn]; Lithuanian: Salomonas Maimonas; Hebrew: שלמה בן יהושע מימון‎‎; 1753 – 22 November 1800) was a philosopher born of Lithuanian Jewish parentage in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, present-day Belarus. Some of his work was written in the German language. Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early years 1.2 Interest in Kabbalah 1.3 In Germany 1.4 In Silesia 2 Philosophical work 2.1 Thing-in-itself 2.2 Application of the categories 2.3 Doctrine of differentials 2.4 Kant's comments 3 Bibliography 3.1 Collected works in German 3.2 English translations 4 Notes 5 Further reading 6 External links Biography[edit] Early years[edit] Salomon Maimon was born Shlomo ben Joshua[1] in the town of Zhukov Borok near Mir in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (present-day Belarus), where his grandfather leased an estate from a Prince Karol Stanisław "Panie Kochanku" Radziwiłł. He was taught Torah and Talmud, first by his father, and later by instructors in Mir. He was recognized as a prodigy in Talmudic studies. His parents fell on hard times, and betrothed him to two separate girls in order to take advantage of their dowries, leading to a bitter rivalry. At the age of eleven he was married to one of the two prospects, a girl from Nesvizh. At the age 14 he was already a father and was making money by teaching Talmud. Later he learned some German from books and walked all the way to Slonim, where he met a rabbi named Shimshon ben Mordechai of Slonim who had studied in Germany. He borrowed German books on physics, optics and medicine from him. After that he became determined to study further. Interest in Kabbalah[edit] Maimon describes how he took an interest in Kabbalah, and made a pilgrimage to the court of the Maggid of Mezritch around 1770.[6] He ridiculed the Maggid's adherents for their enthusiasm, and charged the Maggid with manipulating his followers.[7]:30 He also wrote that the Maggid's ideas are "closer to correct ideas of religion and morals" than those he was taught in cheder.[7]:30" In Germany[edit] In his mid-twenties Maimon left his home area in the direction of the German-speaking lands. His first attempt to take up residence in Berlin in 1778 failed. He was expelled for possession of a draft of a commentary on the Moreh Nebukhim of Maimonides. A later attempt to convert to Protestantism in Hamburg failed due to admitted lack of belief in Christian dogma.[8] His second attempt to settle in Berlin in 1780 succeeded; he established a close connection with Moses Mendelssohn and entered the circles of the Haskalah (the Jewish Enlightenment movement) in Berlin.[6] Mendelssohn introduced him to some wealthy Jews in Berlin, upon whom Maimon relied for patronage while he pursued his studies. He devoted himself to the study of philosophy along the lines of Leibniz, Wolff and Mendelssohn. In 1783, Mendelssohn asked Maimon to leave Berlin due to Maimon's open Spinozism. After a journey to Hamburg, Amsterdam and then back to Hamburg, he started attending the Gymnasium Christianeum in Altona. During his stay there he improved his knowledge of the natural sciences and his command of German. In 1785, Maimon left for Berlin (where he met Mendelssohn for the last time), then moved to Dessau, and then settled in Breslau, where he attempted to study medicine but eventually took up the position of a tutor. After many years of separation, Maimon's wife, Sarah, accompanied by their eldest son, David, managed to locate him in Breslau. She demanded that he either return to their home in Lithuania or give her a divorce. Maimon eventually agreed to the divorce. It was not until 1787 in Berlin that Maimon became acquainted with Kantian philosophy, and in 1790 he published the Essay on Transcendental Philosophy (Versuch über die Transcendentalphilosophie), in which he formulated his objections to Kant's system.[9] Kant seems to have considered Maimon one of his most astute critics.[6] Maimon published a commentary on the Moreh Nebuchim [מורה נבוכים] of Maimonides in 1791 (Gibeath Hamore [גבעת המורה], The Hill of the Guide). In 1792/3 he published his Autobiography (Lebensgeschichte). In Silesia[edit] In 1795, Maimon found a peaceful residence in the house of Count von Kalckreuth (1766-1830),[9][10] a young Silesian nobleman, and moved to the latter's estate in Siegersdorf, near Freistadt in Niederschlesien (Lower Silesia). Maimon died there at the age of 48 from apparent alcoholism.[11][12] Philosophical work[edit] Thing-in-itself[edit] He seizes upon the fundamental incompatibility of a consciousness which can apprehend, and yet is separated from, the thing-in-itself. That which is object of thought cannot be outside consciousness; just as in mathematics − 1 {\displaystyle {\sqrt {-1}}} is an unreal quantity, so things-in-themselves are ex hypothesi outside consciousness, i.e. are unthinkable. The Kantian paradox he explains as the result of an attempt to explain the origin of the given in consciousness. The form of things is admittedly subjective; the mind endeavours to explain the material of the given in the same terms, an attempt which is not only impossible but involves a denial of the elementary laws of thought. Knowledge of the given is, therefore, essentially incomplete. Complete or perfect knowledge is confined to the domain of pure thought, to logic and mathematics. Thus the problem of the thing-in-itself is dismissed from the inquiry, and philosophy is limited to the sphere of pure thought.[9] Application of the categories[edit] The Kantian categories are demonstrable and true, but their application to the given is meaningless and unthinkable. By this critical scepticism Maimon takes up a position intermediate between Kant and Hume. Hume's attitude to the empirical is entirely supported by Maimon. The causal concept, as given by experience, expresses not a necessary objective order of things, but an ordered scheme of perception; it is subjective and cannot be postulated as a concrete law apart from consciousness.[9] Doctrine of differentials[edit] Whereas Kant posed a dualism between understanding and sensibility, or between concepts and the given, Maimon refers both these faculties back to a single source of cognition. Sensibility, in Maimon's view, is therefore not completely without conceptual content, but is generated according to rules that Maimon calls differentials. In calling them this, Maimon is referring to the differentials from the calculus, which are entities that despite being neither qualitative nor quantitative, can nevertheless give rise to a determinate quantity and quality when related to other differentials. The operations of the faculty of sensibility are for Maimon therefore not principally different from those of mathematical intuition: seeing the color red is the same procedure as drawing a geometrical figure such as a line in a circle in thought. The reason that qualities are nevertheless 'given' is that it is only an infinite understanding that can grasp the rules for the generation of qualities in the way that a human understanding can grasp the rules for drawing a circle. Kant's comments[edit] Kant had received the first chapter of Maimon's book in manuscript from Markus Herz. In a letter to Herz from May 26, 1789, Kant writes the following: "I had half decided to send the manuscript back in its immediately .... But one glance at the work made me realize its excellence and that not only had none of my critics understood me and the main questions as well as Herr Maimon does but also very few men possess so much acumen for such deep investigations as he..."[13] Nevertheless, Kant does not agree with Maimon's assessment. For Kant, the question of the relationship of the faculties is adequately answered by the Transcendental Deduction, in which Kant argues that the categories make experience possible. Furthermore, as an explanation of the harmony of the faculties, Kant offers the Leibnizian account of a pre-established harmony. Bibliography[edit] Collected works in German[edit] Maimon, Salomon. Gesammelte Werke, edited by Valerio Verra, 7 volumes, Hildsheim: Olms, 1965–1976. English translations[edit] Maimon, Salomon. The Autobiography of Salomon Maimon with an Essay on Maimon's Philosophy, Introduction by Michael Shapiro, Translated by J. Clark Murray, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001 (original edition: London, Boston : A. Gardner, 1888). Solomon Maimon’s Autobiography, translated by Paul Reitter. Edited and introduced by Yitzhak Y. Melamed and Abraham P. Socher (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019). [This is the first complete English translation of Maimon's autobiography]. Maimon, Salomon. Essay on transcendental philosophy. Translated by Nick Midgley, Henry Somers-Hall, Alistair Welchman, and Merten Reglitz, London, New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4411-1384-9. Maimon, Salomon. Essay Towards a New Logic or Theory of Thought, Together Letters of Philaletes to Aenesidemus in: G. di Giovanni, H.S. Harris (eds.), Between Kant and Hegel: Texts in the Development of Post-Kantian Idealism, Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2001, pp. 158–203. Maimon, Salomon. Essay on Transcendental Philosophy. A Short Overview of the Whole Work, translated by H. Somers-Hall and M. Reglitz, in Pli: The Warwick Journal of Philosophy 19 (2008), pp. 127–165. Maimon, Salomon. The Philosophical Language-Confusion in: Jere Paul Surber, Metacritique. The Linguistic Assault on German Idealism, Amherst:Humanity Books, 2001, pp. 71–84 Notes[edit] ^ a b c d e Kelley, Andrew. "Solomon Maimon (1753—1800)". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ^ Bransen, Jan. The Antinomy of Thought: Maimonian Skepticism and the Relation between Thoughts and Objects. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1991. ^ The Principle of Determinability is the thesis that we can distinguish between the subject and the predicate of a given synthesis. ^ "Maimon, Solomon", The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ^ "Gilles Deleuze", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ^ a b c Thielke, Peter. "Salomon Maimon". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ^ a b Socher, Abraham P. (2006). The Radical Enlightenment of Solomon Maimon: Judaism, Heresy, and Philosophy. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804751366. ^ Solomon Maimon: An Autobiography, trans. J. Clark Murray, University of Illinois Press, 2001. ^ a b c d  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Maimon, Salomon". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. ^ Variant spellings: (1) Count von Calckreuth (2) Count von Kalkreuth (December 12, 1766 - March 27, 1830). His full name is usually given as Heinrich Wilhelm Adolf (or Adolph), Graf (Count) von Kalckreuth, but he was also known as Hans Wilhelm Adolf (or Adolph), Graf von Kalckreuth. He was a Prussian diplomat and author. He wrote books on taxation, law, and on various philosophical topics, including the philosophy of law. For a list of some of his writings see: https://www.worldcat.org/wcidentities/viaf-269163381 ^ Elon, Amos. The pity of it all. A portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch, 1743–1933. Picador, A metropolitan book. NY, Henry Holt and Company, 2002, p. 59. ^ Maimon, Solomon. Solomon Maimon: An autobiography, Introduction by Michael Shapiro, Translated by J. Clark Murray, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001. ^ Kant, Immanuel. Correspondence. Translated and edited by A. Zweig. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 311-311. Further reading[edit] Atlas, Samuel. From Critical to Speculative Idealism: The Philosophy of Solomon Maimon. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1965. Bergmann, Samuel, Hugo. The Philosophy of Salomon Maimon. Translated from the Hebrew by Noah J. Jacobs. Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, 1967. Herrera, Hugo Eduardo. Salomon Maimon's Commentary on the Subject of the Given in Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, in: The Review of Metaphysics 63.3, 2010. pp. 593–613. Elon, Amos. The pity of it all. A portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch, 1743–1933. Picador, A metropolitanan book. NY, Henry Holt and Company, 2002. pp. 54–59. Elon, Daniel. Die Philosophie Salomon Maimons zwischen Spinoza und Kant. Akosmismus und Intellektkonzeption. Hamburg: Meiner, 2021 (= Paradeigmata, 42), ISBN 978-3-7873-3930-3. External links[edit] Media related to Salomon Maimon at Wikimedia Commons Thielke, Peter; Melamed, Yitzhak Y. "Salomon Maimon". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Entry from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Salomon Maimon Society Works by Solomon Maimon at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Salomon Maimon at Internet Archive “Spinozism, Acosmism and Hasidism”. Session with prof. Yitzhak Y. Melamed and Dr. José María Sánchez de León at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Authority control BIBSYS: 90143973 BNE: XX1109541 BNF: cb12013974d (data) CiNii: DA02614375 GND: 11857647X ISNI: 0000 0001 1804 2987 LCCN: n84238625 LNB: 000047909 NDL: 00524080 NKC: jx20050308001 NLA: 36021175 NLI: 000087826 NLP: A11837585 NTA: 070705755 PLWABN: 9810598298505606 SELIBR: 214405 SNAC: w6s831kw SUDOC: 028268938 Trove: 1189311 VcBA: 495/95227 VIAF: 68940347 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n84238625 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Salomon_Maimon&oldid=994084468" Categories: 1754 births 1800 deaths 18th-century German philosophers 18th-century philosophers Consciousness researchers and theorists Continental philosophers Empiricists Epistemologists German ethicists German Jews German logicians German male non-fiction writers German male writers History of ethics History of ideas History of logic History of mathematics History of philosophy Idealists Immanuel Kant Jewish ethicists Jewish philosophers Kantian philosophers Kantianism Lithuanian ethicists Lithuanian Jews Lithuanian male writers Lithuanian philosophers Logicians Metaphysicians Moral philosophers Ontologists People educated at the Gymnasium Christianeum People from Karelichy District Philosophers of culture Philosophers of education Philosophers of ethics and morality Philosophers of Judaism Philosophers of law Philosophers of logic Philosophers of mathematics Philosophers of mind People from Mir, Belarus Hidden categories: Articles with Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy links Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica Use dmy dates from April 2012 Articles with hCards Articles containing Lithuanian-language text Articles containing Hebrew-language text Commons category link is on Wikidata Articles with Project Gutenberg links Articles with Internet Archive links Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with LNB identifiers Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLI identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLP identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers Wikipedia articles with VcBA identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Languages العربية Беларуская Беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎ Deutsch Español Esperanto Français Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית مصرى Nederlands 日本語 Polski Português Русский Slovenčina Suomi Svenska Edit links This page was last edited on 14 December 2020, at 01:14 (UTC). 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