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Salomon Maimon (/ˈmaɪmɒn/; German: [ˈmaɪmoːn]; Lithuanian: Salomonas Maimonas; Hebrew: שלמה בן יהושע מימון‎ Shlomo ben Yehoshua Maimon; 1753 – 22 November 1800) was a philosopher born of Lithuanian Jewish parentage in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, present-day Belarus. His work was written in German and in Hebrew.

Key Information

Biography

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Early years

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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

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Maimon describes how he took an interest in Kabbalah, and made a pilgrimage to the court of the Maggid of Mezritch around 1770.[4] He ridiculed the Maggid's adherents for their enthusiasm, and charged the Maggid with manipulating his followers.[5]: 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.[5]: 30 "

Around the years 1777–1778 he wrote the book "ma'ase livnat hasapir" ("a pavement of sapphire stone", from Exodus 24:10), in there he interpreted the Kabbala thought in philosophical way. This book unprinted in maimon's life and only in 2019 the scholar Gideon Freudenthal published it from the manuscript.[6]

In Germany

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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.[7] 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.[4] 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. Kant seems to have considered Maimon one of his most astute critics.[4] 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

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In 1795, Maimon found a peaceful residence in the house of Count von Kalckreuth (1766–1830),[8] 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.[9][10] He was buried in Głogów, and because he was considered a Heretic by the city's Jewish community them buried him next to the latrine of the graveyard, did not place a tombstone on his grave and burned some of his writings.[11]

Thought

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Thing-in-itself

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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" 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.

Application of the categories

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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.

Doctrine of differentials

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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

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Kant had received the first chapter of Maimon's book in manuscript from Markus Herz. In a letter to Herz from 26 May 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..."[12]

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

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Notes

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References

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Further reading

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Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Salomon Maimon

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Salomon Maimon (1753–1800) was a Jewish philosopher born in Nieswież in the (present-day ) to Orthodox parents, who became a key figure in late Enlightenment thought through his rigorous critique of Immanuel Kant's transcendental philosophy. Initially trained as a rabbinical scholar and in Talmudic studies, Maimon adopted his surname in homage to the medieval philosopher upon leaving his early life of poverty and to pursue secular learning across and . Largely self-taught in after encountering works by Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Hume, and especially Kant, he developed a system blending skeptical with rationalist elements, rejecting Kant's noumenal realm as superfluous and proposing instead that arises from an infinite, differential process of relating ideas without fixed synthetic a priori foundations. His major work, Versuch über die Transzendentalphilosophie (1790), positioned him as a transitional thinker influencing post-Kantian , though his emphasis on unresolved antinomies and the indeterminacy of thought challenged dogmatic closure in metaphysics. Maimon's candid , Lebensgeschichte (1792–1793), chronicles his itinerant existence, intellectual struggles, and opium dependency, offering a rare self-portrait of an Enlightenment outsider navigating Jewish and intellectual worlds.

Biography

Early Life and Self-Education

Salomon Maimon, born Shlomo ben Yehoshua in 1753 in Suchowyborg (also known as Sukowy Borek), a small village near the town of in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (present-day ), came from a modest Jewish family of limited means. From an early age, he displayed exceptional aptitude for learning, particularly in Talmudic studies, which formed the core of his initial religious education under traditional Jewish auspices. By age eleven, following customary practices among Eastern European Jews of the era, Maimon entered an with a local girl, shortly before his bar mitzvah; he fathered a son soon thereafter and began supporting himself as a private tutor in religious texts. Dissatisfied with the rote and dialectical methods prevalent in the local , he pursued independent study, secretly acquiring and mastering Hebrew grammar—a discipline then viewed skeptically by rabbinic authorities as potentially diverting from pure . This self-directed scholarship extended to philosophical texts, including , which he studied covertly despite opposition from traditionalists who prioritized unadulterated Talmudic immersion over rationalist inquiries. Early exposure to Jewish mystical-pietistic traditions, such as , further shaped his intellectual curiosity, blending esoteric elements with his emerging rational inclinations before he later critiqued them. These autonomous efforts, conducted amid familial and communal constraints, laid the groundwork for his transition from provincial Talmudic prodigy to broader Enlightenment engagement, highlighting his innate drive for systematic knowledge beyond orthodox boundaries.

Immersion in Kabbalah and Hasidic Thought

Born in 1753 in the village of Suchowyborg near Nieswiez in what was then Poland-Lithuania (now ), Salomon Maimon received a traditional Talmudic from a young age, demonstrating prodigious talent in rabbinical studies. By his early teens, following his marriage at age 11 around 1764 and the birth of his first son in 1767, Maimon began delving into Jewish mystical traditions, particularly , which he studied and interpreted through the lens of Maimonidean . He sought to reconcile Kabbalistic doctrines with , arguing that true required philosophical understanding to avoid superficial or erroneous interpretations, while viewing itself as incomplete without kabbalistic insights into the infinite. Maimon's immersion extended to Hasidic thought, where he initially revered the pietistic and mystical elements as models of and devotion. Around 1770, he visited the court of Dov Ber, the of Mezritch—the leading figure in early Hasidism and successor to the —for several weeks, where he was struck by Hasidic practices of self-annihilation in God (bitul ha-yesh) and spontaneous, improvisational . He perceived affinities between Hasidic and and the philosophy of Spinoza, which he later explored in his writings, though he critiqued certain Hasidic tendencies toward unreflective over rational inquiry. This engagement, documented in his 1792–1793 autobiography Lebensgeschichte, provides one of the earliest non-Hasidic accounts of the movement's dynamics. Despite his sympathies, Maimon's efforts to demonstrate that rested on philosophical foundations—rather than purely theurgic or esoteric practices—led to tensions with Hasidic circles, who branded him a heretic for intellectualizing . His approach privileged rational explication over devotional ecstasy, foreshadowing his later synthesis of with Enlightenment critique, yet it alienated him from the communal piety he initially sought. This period of immersion, spanning his late teens and twenties, profoundly shaped his metaphysical inclinations toward infinite reason and the limits of finite cognition.

Arrival in Germany and Encounters with Enlightenment Figures

In the mid-1770s, Salomon Maimon, seeking intellectual advancement beyond the constraints of traditional Jewish life in , departed for German-speaking territories, initially arriving in around 1777 after a arduous journey involving self-study and . His path led to , where he first approached the Rosenthaler Gate in approximately 1777 or 1778, only to be denied entry by Jewish community officials suspicious of his unconventional views and lack of formal credentials. After six months of wandering and hardship, including begging and temporary stays in Posen, Maimon gained admission to around 1779–1780, lodging initially among poor travelers at the New Market. This entry marked his immersion in the , the Jewish Enlightenment movement, though he continued to face scrutiny from orthodox elements for his rationalist inclinations. In , Maimon's pivotal encounter was with , the leading figure of the , whom he approached by submitting a Hebrew dissertation critiquing theological proofs, which impressed Mendelssohn with its logical acuity. Mendelssohn provided financial support and engaged Maimon in discussions on metaphysics, Spinoza's pantheism (which Maimon defended against orthodox critics), John Locke's empiricism, and Johann Adelung's grammar, facilitating Maimon's self-education in German philosophy despite his imperfect language skills. These interactions, occurring primarily before Mendelssohn's death in 1786, exposed Maimon to the rationalist currents of the Berlin Enlightenment, including attendance at lectures and private tutoring sessions, though Mendelssohn eventually advised him to leave due to social frictions with conservative Jewish circles. Maimon also connected with other Enlightenment intellectuals through Mendelssohn's circle, notably Marcus Herz, a Kantian disciple who introduced him to Immanuel Kant's (1781) during his stays in in the early 1780s. Herz facilitated Maimon's correspondence with Kant, who later praised Maimon's 1790 work Versuch über die Transzendentalphilosophie for its penetrating critique, though no personal meeting occurred. These engagements, amid Maimon's independent studies of Wolffian metaphysics and scientific texts, positioned him within 's progressive Jewish and gentile intellectual networks, blending Eastern European rabbinic traditions with Western , despite ongoing rejections from traditionalists wary of his .

Residence in Silesia and Final Years

In 1790, Salomon Maimon secured patronage from Count Friedrich Adolf von Kalckreuth, who initially hosted him near before relocating him to the count's estate at Nieder-Siegersdorf (now Podbrzezie Dolne) near Głogów in . This arrangement ended Maimon's prior material insecurity, offering him a dedicated residence and modest support that enabled sustained intellectual work amid his ongoing personal struggles, including health decline and reputed intemperance. From 1795 onward, Maimon resided more permanently in the household of a younger Kalckreuth family member, Count Hans Wilhelm von Kalckreuth, at the same Silesian estate, where he pursued a relatively secluded existence focused on writing and reflection. His final years were marked by increasing isolation and melancholy, compounded by physical frailty; he produced key texts such as critiques of but withdrew from broader social engagements. Maimon succumbed to illness on November 22, 1800, at age 46 or 47, in Nieder-Siegersdorf, with contemporary accounts noting his last days under the estate's care and a local documenting the event in the periodical Kronos. His death concluded a peripatetic life, leaving behind an unpublished on logic and a legacy shaped by his Silesian seclusion.

Intellectual Influences and Development

Jewish Philosophical Traditions and Rationalism

Salomon Maimon, originally Shlomo ben Joshua, received a traditional Talmudic education in his youth in Lithuania, which instilled in him a foundation in Jewish legal and dialectical reasoning, though he later critiqued the Talmudists' prejudices while appreciating their moral devotion. This early exposure evolved into a deeper engagement with medieval Jewish philosophy, particularly the rationalist tradition exemplified by Maimonides, whose Guide for the Perplexed profoundly shaped Maimon's intellectual outlook. Adopting the surname "Maimon" as a homage to the medieval thinker, he embraced Maimonides' strict rationalism, which prioritized reason in interpreting religious doctrine and viewed intellectual perfection as the ultimate human goal. Maimon's rationalist stance demanded that religious beliefs align with philosophical coherence, echoing Maimonides' insistence that faith must harmonize with demonstrable truth rather than mysticism or unexamined tradition. In contrast to the mystical elements of Jewish thought, Maimon critiqued and Hasidism for their fanatical tendencies and departure from rational religion, arguing that true understanding of Kabbalistic principles required philosophical scrutiny, which often revealed their incompleteness or errors. His early Hebrew work Hesheq Shelomo (Posen, 1778) attempted to rationalize Kabbalistic ideas by linking them to Spinozistic , yet he ultimately favored the peripatetic (Aristotelian-influenced) of medieval Jewish philosophers over esoteric interpretations. This selective appropriation informed his , a cornerstone of his thought that demanded explanations grounded in logical necessity rather than revelation alone. By the time he penned a Hebrew commentary on ' Guide in 1791, Maimon's had solidified as a quest for truth through unaided reason, critiquing practices that deviated from Judaism's purported original rational ideal. Maimon's immersion in these traditions positioned him as a bridge between medieval Jewish and Enlightenment thought, emphasizing toward dogmatic faith while upholding reason's primacy in attaining knowledge of the divine and the world. Unlike contemporaries drawn to pietistic movements, he rejected Hasidic improvisation in exposition as insufficiently rigorous, preferring the analytical precision of rationalist forebears. This foundation not only fueled his later critiques of Kant but also reflected a lifelong commitment to undogmatic inquiry, where philosophy served as the arbiter of religious validity.

Engagement with Spinoza and Pre-Kantian Metaphysics

Salomon Maimon's early philosophical inquiries were marked by a profound engagement with Baruch Spinoza's metaphysics, which he encountered during his self-directed studies following immersion in ' rationalism. Spinoza's monistic , positing or Nature as the singular infinite substance from which all finite modes derive, appealed to Maimon as a systematic reconciliation of rational deduction with the pantheistic tendencies he observed in Kabbalistic and Hasidic traditions. He adopted Spinoza's without limitation, viewing it as foundational to explanatory , yet tempered this with a skeptical reservation against the system's dogmatic closure, anticipating his later critiques. This engagement positioned Spinoza not as an atheist, but as an acosmistic thinker who denied the independent reality of the finite world, with serving as the material cause in which all determinations inhere—a concept Maimon repurposed as the basis for his own "Law of Determinability." In confronting pre-Kantian metaphysics, particularly the Leibniz-Wolffian rationalist tradition, Maimon rejected its dogmatic reliance on innate ideas and noumenal substances as explanatory posits insufficiently grounded in the conditions of . The Wolffian school's hierarchical deduction of from sufficient reason struck him as empirically vulnerable, echoing Humean while upholding rationalist standards of universal validity; he modified Leibnizian by conceiving and understanding as degrees of a unified cognitive faculty rather than distinct realms, thus avoiding the pre-Kantian bifurcation of phenomena and noumena. This critique stemmed from his insistence on explanatory completeness without positing unconditioned realities beyond determinable relations, blending Spinozistic immanence with a proto-skeptical that privileged the infinite intellect—drawn partly from ' divine intellect—as the horizon of all possible thought. Maimon's synthesis of these elements prefigured his mature , where Spinozism provided the monistic substrate for critiquing the explanatory gaps in rationalist dogmatism, such as the Leibnizian assumption of pre-established without recourse to differential approximations of the infinite. He saw pre-Kantian systems as failing to resolve the quid juris of synthetic judgments through mere logical necessity, instead demanding a genetic account rooted in the progressive determinability of concepts from an infinite reason—a Spinozistic legacy refracted through skeptical . This phase of development underscored his commitment to metaphysics as a of limits, wary of both empirical reductionism and rationalist overreach.

Discovery and Critical Appropriation of Kant

In the late 1780s, during his second residence in , Salomon Maimon encountered Immanuel Kant's through the philosopher Marcus Herz, a former student of Kant and prominent figure in Berlin's Jewish Enlightenment circles. Herz provided Maimon with a copy of the work and facilitated his initial engagement, marking a pivotal shift in Maimon's philosophical development from earlier influences like Spinoza and Leibniz toward Kantian critical philosophy. This discovery occurred amid Maimon's efforts to master German and integrate into intellectual society, as he had only recently achieved proficiency in the language necessary for reading Kant's dense text. Maimon's initial reading led to an immediate and profound appreciation for the skeptical dimensions of Kant's epistemology, particularly the limitations imposed on metaphysics and the analysis of synthetic a priori judgments. He endorsed Kant's critique of traditional rationalism, viewing it as a rigorous demolition of dogmatic claims about reality beyond experience, but rejected the positing of a noumenal realm of things-in-themselves as an unwarranted dogmatic residue that undermined the critique's own skeptical rigor. By mid-1789, Maimon had drafted the first chapter of his commentary on the Critique, which Herz forwarded to Kant himself, eliciting a cautious response from the author who praised its acumen while questioning its coherence. Maimon's appropriation of Kant was thus selectively critical, transforming the Critique into a foundation for his own quasi-skeptical system rather than uncritical adherence. He expanded his annotations into the Versuch über die Transcendentalphilosophie (Essay on Transcendental Philosophy), published in , where he reframed Kantian categories as symbolic representations emerging from an infinite progression of thought rather than fixed faculties bridging phenomena and noumena. This work positioned Maimon as an early and incisive post-Kantian thinker, emphasizing empirical determination over transcendental idealism's dualism, though he maintained Kant's emphasis on the conditions of possible experience while dissolving the unknowable substrate Kant deemed necessary. In a 1791 letter to Kant, Maimon explicitly affirmed the convincing nature of the skeptical arguments while reserving for the dogmatic elements, signaling his intent to radicalize Kant's through and probabilistic reasoning.

Philosophical System

Rejection of the Thing-in-Itself and Skeptical Foundations

Salomon Maimon, in his Versuch über die Transzendentalphilosophie (1790), rejected Immanuel Kant's doctrine of the Ding an sich (thing-in-itself) as an incoherent posit that undermines the autonomy of cognition. Maimon argued that positing an unknowable noumenal substrate as the cause of sensory representations introduces a causal relation inapplicable to entities outside the phenomenal realm, since causality itself is a subjective category of understanding that structures experience rather than describing independent reality. This critique stems from Maimon's analysis that any attempt to conceive the thing-in-itself as affecting sensibility presupposes the very forms of intuition and categories it is meant to precede, rendering the concept self-contradictory and dispensable. By eliminating the , Maimon shifted the foundations of toward a relational , where objects are not correspondences to external causes but determinations within the manifold of thought. He maintained that representations arise through the synthesis of faculties without requiring an extraneous guarantor of objectivity, thereby avoiding Kant's dualism while preserving the critical insight that is form-bound. This rejection aligns with Maimon's broader skeptical orientation, influenced by , which denies absolute foundations for empirical beyond the coherence of conceptual relations. Empirical truths, for Maimon, hold provisionally through probabilistic induction rather than necessary connection to a mind-independent world, as the latter would demand transcending the limits of finite reason. Maimon's skepticism thus establishes philosophy on uncertain yet rational grounds, prioritizing mathematical and logical necessities—where infinite divisibility via "differentials" approximates synthetic judgments—over dogmatic metaphysics. He contended that while analytic propositions are indubitable, synthetic a priori claims involve an ideal progression toward completeness in reason, susceptible to doubt without the illusory anchor of noumena. This framework critiques Kant's transcendental idealism not as outright falsity but as insufficiently skeptical, opening the door to a monistic view where thought and its objects coincide without residual unknowability. Kant himself acknowledged Maimon's penetration, noting in 1790 correspondence that among critics, Maimon grasped the core issues most acutely, though disagreeing on the implications.

Reinterpretation of Categories and Synthetic A Priori Judgments

Maimon challenged Kant's doctrine that the categories of understanding—such as , substance, and —possess objective validity through their synthetic application to a priori forms of , arguing that this application presupposes an unproven synthesis between logical functions and sensible content. Instead, he reinterpreted categories as formal determinations applicable only to differentials ( variations) within intuitions, which serve as symbolic proxies for the of reason rather than direct representations of empirical reality. This shift posits that intuitions are not passive receptions from a but active constructions emerging from the mind's progressive approximation of continuity through discrete, differential elements, drawing on Leibnizian to resolve the heterogeneity between and . In Maimon's framework, synthetic a priori judgments, which Kant deemed constitutive of experience (e.g., "every event has a cause"), lose their apodictic certainty and become regulative principles guiding an infinite rational process rather than grounding finite knowledge. He contended that true synthesis occurs not in a finite act of subsumption but in the asymptotic approach to determinability, where categories discriminate intuitive content only insofar as differentials embody potential relations, preventing dogmatic assertions about objective necessity. For instance, the category of causality applies synthetically not to intuited objects per se but to the symbolic resolution of successive differential states, rendering judgments probabilistic and open to empirical correction rather than transcendentally guaranteed. This reinterpretation undermines Kant's quid juris— the justification for categories' legislative role over intuition—by reducing it to a logical principle of determinability, where one manifold is determinable only relative to another in an unending chain of thought. Maimon's doctrine thus bridges skepticism and transcendental idealism, preserving the a priori status of categories as tools of formal logic while denying their capacity for synthetic extension without mediation by infinite reason, a view he elaborated in his 1790 Versuch über die Transzendentalphilosophie. Empirical data from mathematics, particularly the differential calculus developed by Newton and Leibniz in the late 17th century, informed this model, as Maimon analogized synthetic judgments to limits derived from infinitesimals, ensuring universality through rational construction rather than intuition's brute givenness. Critics like Kant himself noted in an October 1790 letter that Maimon's approach risked dissolving objective knowledge into subjective variability, yet Maimon maintained it as a more rigorous alternative, avoiding Kant's reliance on an unknowable noumenal substrate.

Doctrine of Differentials and Infinite Reason

Salomon Maimon employed the concept of differentials, drawn from , to resolve what he saw as the irresolvable dualism in Kant's between and understanding. Rather than viewing intuitions as passive receptions of sensory data, Maimon posited differentials as the fundamental elements of intuitions—infinitely small relations or increments that constitute sensible qualities without themselves being quantifiable magnitudes. These differentials function as intellectual rules or noumena, generating empirical objects through a progressive synthesis akin to integration in , where finite reason approximates the whole by summing parts. , in this view, emerges as an "incomplete understanding," reducible to discursive thought processes that analyze sensations into their differential components, thereby homogenizing the sensible with the intelligible. Central to this doctrine is the notion of infinite reason, which Maimon contrasted with finite human cognition to explain the ultimate structure of reality. Infinite reason—exemplified by divine intellect—comprehends and produces objects instantaneously as complete syntheses of differentials, grasping the absolute unity of the infinite series without discursive progression. In contrast, human reason operates finitely, relying on symbolic or intuitive infinitesimals to approach this ideal through endless approximation, as in expansions that model functions via limits without attaining zero. This infinite progression underscores Maimon's skeptical realism: empirical objects exist as limits of such series, but the full comprehension remains regulative, an idea of reason rather than actual knowledge, eliminating Kant's unknowable by internalizing generation within thought. Maimon's framework thus reinterprets synthetic a priori judgments mathematically, arguing that categories apply to experience not via transcendental schemata but through differential relations that subsume varying intensities under unity. For instance, numerical relations like ratios (e.g., 2 as 2:1) exemplify how differentials abstract from quantity to reveal objects as products of spontaneity. This approach critiques Kant's geometry-centric account of , favoring arithmetic and to demonstrate how metaphysics becomes a of generative rules, where infinite reason provides the for all .

Theory of Invention, Induction, and Scientific Genius

Maimon's theory of emphasizes a systematic process for deriving new truths from established ones, prioritizing methodical over intuitive flashes of prevalent in the late 18th-century Geniezeit. In his view, involves reorganizing and analyzing acquired cognitions to uncover previously unknown relations, particularly in mathematics, where he applies techniques drawn from to solve problems securely. This approach, outlined in works like Versuch über die Transzendentalphilosophie (1790), seeks to mitigate by providing a quasi-deductive path to synthetic , though it acknowledges limits in achieving absolute . Central to this is the distinction between the "methodical inventor," who consciously sorts truths into hierarchies for syllogistic derivation, and the scientific , who performs similar operations unconsciously. Maimon argues that excels in rapid, intuitive construction of complex syllogisms but risks error without method; thus, philosophy should refine these processes into explicit rules, as explored in his 1795 essay "Der und der methodische Erfinder." He illustrates this with mathematical examples, where invention proceeds by approximations (echoing his doctrine of differentials), enabling progress toward infinite reason without relying on unmediated inspiration. Regarding induction, Maimon draws heavily from Francis Bacon's , which he annotated in 1793, adapting it for empirical sciences lacking deductive . Induction serves to elevate propositions from mere probability to subjective necessity via accumulated observations and "natural histories"—concise, organized compilations of phenomena, akin to Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum. In Giv'at Hamore (1791) and related essays, he describes a "ladder of ," where repeated trials incrementally approximate laws of nature, though full universality remains elusive due to empirical incompleteness. This Baconian framework complements his deductive invention in pure reason, forming a hybrid that balances with practical advancement.

Reception, Critiques, and Legacy

Immediate Responses from Kant and Contemporaries

Kant received a copy of Maimon's Versuch über die Transzendentalphilosophie () and reportedly remarked that Maimon understood his better than any other interpreter, recognizing the depth of Maimon's engagement with the Critique of Pure Reason. This praise highlighted Maimon's acute grasp of Kantian , even as Maimon advanced skeptical critiques of key elements like the and the synthesis of intuitions and concepts. However, Kant did not publicly elaborate a full to Maimon's challenges in the immediate aftermath, though private correspondence, such as his 1789 letter to Marcus Herz, indirectly addressed related skeptical concerns that Maimon later amplified. Among contemporaries, engaged Maimon critically, viewing his skepticism as a misunderstanding of foundational principles like the "principle of " that Reinhold sought to establish as a basis for . Reinhold accused Maimon of evading systematic rigor in favor of acausal probabilistic reasoning, particularly in debates over and choice, where Maimon rejected Reinhold's emphasis on voluntary decision-making as insufficiently grounded in infinite reason. Despite the friction, Reinhold acknowledged Maimon's intellectual acuity, taking his objections seriously enough to refine his own elemental philosophy. Johann Gottlieb Fichte, in his early Jena-period writings from the 1790s, treated Maimon as a pivotal skeptic whose critiques exposed limitations in Kant's dualism between sensibility and understanding but failed to transcend toward . Fichte referenced Maimon explicitly, positioning his own Wissenschaftslehre as a constructive response that overcame Maimon's unresolved discursivity by deriving all from the I's self-positing activity, thereby avoiding Maimon's in synthetic judgments. This reaction underscored Maimon's role in prompting post-Kantian developments, with Fichte crediting him for sharpening the debate on the origins of consciousness without passive givenness. Other figures, including , had earlier noted Maimon's potential despite his unconventional style, but post-1790 responses from broader circles like the Enlightenment intelligentsia were mixed, often praising his erudition while decrying his esoteric differentials and rejection of dogmatic metaphysics as overly destructive. These immediate engagements positioned Maimon as a bridge between Kantian and emerging idealisms, though his drew charges of undermining practical reason without offering viable alternatives.

Influence on Post-Kantian Idealism and Skepticism

Maimon's critique of Kant's , particularly his rejection of the as an inconsistent hybrid of empirical and a priori elements, introduced a Humean into that compelled post-Kantian philosophers to address foundational vulnerabilities in Kant's system. By arguing that all cognition is fundamentally discursive and conceptual, without passive intuitions, Maimon undermined Kant's synthesis of and , positing instead an infinite progression of reason toward ever more determinate approximations of reality, which exposed the limits of finite human understanding. This skeptical turn, detailed in his Versuch über die Transzendentalphilosophie (1790), challenged the stability of Kant's categories and synthetic a priori judgments, prompting idealists to seek a more absolute grounding to evade or . Fichte, in developing his Wissenschaftslehre (1794), explicitly engaged Maimon's objections as a catalyst for transcending Kant's dualism, viewing the skeptic's emphasis on the discursivity of thought as necessitating an absolute I that posits itself and the not-I without reliance on an unknowable . Maimon's insistence that the renders Kant's dogmatic rather than critical influenced Fichte's shift toward , where the self's activity resolves the epistemological gaps Maimon highlighted, though Fichte critiqued Maimon's as insufficiently dynamic. This response transformed Maimon's from a mere into a spur for the Ich-centered absolutism that defined early post-Kantian , with Fichte acknowledging the force of such challenges alongside those from (Schulze). Schelling and Hegel extended this trajectory by incorporating Maimonian elements into their objective idealisms, with Schelling drawing on Maimon's differentials and infinite reason to articulate a that overcomes subjective limitations, while Hegel praised Maimon's logical innovations in the Science of Logic (1812–1816) but faulted his failure to dialectically sublate into absolute spirit. Hegel's early Faith and Knowledge (1802) references Maimon's quasi-Spinozistic as a bridge from Kantian critique to systematic , crediting it with dissolving the into pure thought-determinations. Despite their divergences, these thinkers treated Maimon's work as a pivotal skeptical intervention that, much like Hume's for Kant, necessitated the evolution from transcendental to , ensuring his ideas permeated the movement's core debates on reason's self-sufficiency.

Modern Scholarly Debates and Reassessments

In recent decades, scholars have reassessed Salomon Maimon's philosophy as a pivotal yet underappreciated intervention in post-Kantian thought, emphasizing his skeptical of the ding an sich () as a challenge to Kantian dualism rather than a mere . This view posits that Maimon's "progressive ," which rejects the unknowable noumenal in favor of an infinite, differential progression within appearances, aligns explanatory with empirical constraints, rendering the dispensable without collapsing into . Critics, however, debate whether this undermines synthetic a priori judgments or instead refines them through a quasi-empiricist lens, where categories emerge from symbolic representations rather than innate faculties. Contemporary interpretations highlight Maimon's methodological affinities with , portraying him as adopting "natural histories" to catalog empirical phenomena and inductive ladders for ascending from particulars to universals, thus bridging with scientific practice. This reassessment counters earlier dismissals of Maimon as an inconsistent Humean by demonstrating how his "doctrine of differentials" anticipates non-foundational epistemologies, treating reason as an infinite striving that generates via rather than dogmatic closure. Scholars argue this framework resolves tensions in Kant's system by subordinating metaphysics to a dynamic logic of invention, influencing debates on the unity of theoretical and practical reason. Debates persist over the coherence of Maimon's enlightened , particularly its implications for non-mathematical and natural right; proponents contend it avoids global incoherence by limiting to speculative metaphysics while affirming practical axioms grounded in determinability principles that preclude indeterminate identities. Recent analyses of his further reassess Maimon as integrating Jewish with Enlightenment critique, viewing theology not as dogmatic authority but as a tool for political stability through rational . Overall, these discussions underscore a lack of consensus on Maimon's systematic ambitions, with some interpreting his legacy as exposing the limits of idealism's monistic tendencies, while others see it as foundational for a pluralistic, process-oriented .

Major Works

Key Publications and Their Contexts

Salomon Maimon's Versuch über die Transzendentalphilosophie, published in in 1790 by Christian Friedrich Voß, originated as annotations to Immanuel Kant's that Maimon contributed to journals such as the Gothaische gelehrte Zeitungen in the late 1780s, later expanded into a full challenging Kant's transcendental deduction and the while proposing a skeptical reinterpretation of synthetic judgments through the concept of differentials. The work positioned Maimon as a radical post-Kantian thinker, emphasizing infinite reason and the indeterminacy of thought over fixed categories, amid his efforts to secure intellectual patronage in after fleeing Hasidic life in . In 1791, Maimon released the first installment of Philosophisches Wörterbuch, oder Beleuchtung der wichtigsten Gegenstände der Philosophie in alphabetischer Ordnung, printed in by Johann Friedrich Unger, as a systematic elucidating core philosophical terms from metaphysics to logic, drawing on his eclectic influences including Spinoza, Hume, and Leibniz to critique dogmatic assumptions and promote a probabilistic . This publication reflected Maimon's pedagogical intent and his immersion in 's Enlightenment circles, where he debated with figures like , though only the initial volume covering entries up to "Erkenntnis" appeared during his lifetime due to financial constraints. Maimon's Lebensgeschichte, an spanning his life from 1754 to around , was serialized in Karl Philipp Moritz's journal Magazin zur Erfahrungsseelenkunde and published in book form by Friedrich Vieweg in across two volumes in and , providing a candid account of his self-taught journey from Talmudic study in Nieswiez and to philosophical in and , including episodes of , use, and intellectual isolation. Edited by Moritz, the text served both as personal vindication and a critique of religious , influencing Romantic views of genius while underscoring Maimon's causal emphasis on empirical self-formation over innate faculties. Subsequent works like Streifereien im Gebiete der Philosophie (, 1793) extended his skeptical inquiries into and , responding to contemporary debates, while Versuch einer neuen Logik (1794) formalized his differential method for induction, but these built directly on the foundational triad of his output amid declining health and disputes.

Editions, Translations, and

Maimon's principal philosophical , Versuch über die Transzendentalphilosophie, was first published in by Christian Voß and Sohn in 1790. His , Lebensgeschichte, appeared in two volumes: the first in 1792 and the second in 1793, both issued by Friedrich Vieweg in . Other significant works include Versuch einer neuen Logik (1794), published in , and posthumous texts such as Geschichte seines philosophierenden Autors in Dialogen (1799). Modern critical editions have enhanced scholarly access to Maimon's writings. A comprehensive Gesamtausgabe under the chief editorship of Ives Radrizzani, comprising 10 volumes, began publication in 2003 by Frommann-Holzboog in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, aiming to collect and annotate his complete oeuvre. For Versuch über die Transzendentalphilosophie, a scholarly edition edited by Florian Ehrensperger was released in 2004 by Felix Meiner Verlag in , featuring improved textual apparatus and annotations. English translations have increased Maimon's availability to non-German readers, though comprehensive coverage remains partial. The first full English rendering of Versuch über die Transzendentalphilosophie as Essay on Transcendental Philosophy was translated by Nick Welter and published by Continuum (now ) in 2010. The autobiography received its complete English translation by Paul Reitter, edited by Y. Melamed and Abraham P. Socher, in 2019 from , restoring omissions from the prior abridged 1888 version by J. Murray. Versuch einer neuen Logik appeared in English as Essay on a New Logic or Theory of Thinking, translated with commentary, via in 2024. A translation of the posthumous Geschichte seines philosophierenden Autors in Dialogues was included in a 2024 volume. These recent editions and translations, primarily from academic publishers, have improved accessibility for researchers, but Maimon's works are not widely available in digital formats or popular editions, limiting broader readership to academic libraries and specialized collections. Original German texts and early editions are held in major European archives, with reproductions occasionally digitized by institutions like the .

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