ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes Göttingen materialism in the light of Jonathan I. Israel's distinction and argue that it is a more complex phenomenon: Christoph Meiners and Michael Hißmann, as well as most of the other late Enlightenment materialists in Germany, neither entirely deny the existence of a soul separate from the body, nor do they fully deny the immortality of the soul. The Georgia Augusta University in Göttingen was newly founded in 1737 when the importance of the Electorate of Hanover increased because of the personal union with the English crown. The chapter evaluates the results concerning Hißmann's materialism and also discusses some additional evidence that bears on whether he can be counted among the radicals or the moderates. The specific form of Hißmann's religious belief, Socinianism, belongs to the Radical Enlightenment repertoire. Hißmann might have been up to even more is hinted at in a letter by Karl Franz von Irwing, a high Church official in Berlin.
