Judaism and Temporary Community: Moses Mendelssohn on imperfection and truth

Abstract

Moses Mendelssohn’s work on imperfection might cause us to rethink the concepts of truth which follow from the Kantian tradition; he offers an alternative, if repressed, way of thinking about truth—one oriented by imperfection, rather than the structure of appearance. Understanding Mendelssohn as a philosopher of imperfection should affect how we read the word ‘truth’ in Modern Jewish philosophy: if imperfection is a fundamental ingredient of human life, then it is not something we must do away with, or annihilate, in order to find truth; it is not an obstacle. Rather—if we, like Mendelssohn, assume that we are incomplete and compromised—any relationship to truth must not seek to overcome imperfection and compromise, but proceed through them.