Mendelssohn, Kant, and Proofs of the Existence of God in Kant’s Pre-Critical Period

Abstract

This chapter reviews Mendelssohn’s early defense of the ontological and cosmological arguments for the existence of God, then examines Kant’s criticism of those arguments, especially in his 1763 book Only Possible Basis for a Demonstration of the Existence of God and his attempt at a new proof of the existence of God as the ground of all possibility rather than actuality. The chapter then examines Mendelssohn’s critique of Kant’s new argument and defense of his own position in a review of Kant’s book.