Reflections on Lessing's Fragments

that you absolutely wanted to claim: white is black, and black is white. Descartes, Malebranche, Hobbes, Spinoza, and Edelmann Johann Christian Edelmann (1698–1767) was a radical German Enlightenment writer known for his fierce critiques of established Christianity. were Materialists Materialists: Philosophers who maintain that nothing exists but matter and its movements; here used as a derogatory label for those who deny the spiritual or divine., and although they decorated their philosophy with learned frippery Flitterkram: Literally "tinsel" or "glitter," referring to intellectual arguments that are showy but have little substance., not one of them so forgot himself, nor so greatly darkened and clouded the light of reason Vernunft: Rational intellect, which the author believes his opponents are actually obscuring through their radicalism., as has been done by You, Lessing Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781), a leading Enlightenment figure whose publication of the "Reimarus Fragments" sparked intense religious controversy., and the author of the Letters on the Bible in a Popular Tone A reference to Karl Friedrich Bahrdt (1741–1792), a controversial theologian who attempted to rewrite the Bible as a purely moral, non-miraculous text..

From the works that You and your associates have published, one can clearly see how far men can go astray and lose themselves with their reason. One sees how they can darken, degrade, insult, and dishonor the dignity of humanity, even when the kind spirit of nature [has provided them] with sharp—