Beseke, Johann Melchior Gottlieb (1746-1802)

1766: Matriculation (Frankfurt/Oder).
1771: Private tutor (Halle).
1772: Magister, and Doctor of Law (Halle).
1774: Professor (Mitau).

Born (Sep 26) in Burg (near Madgeburg), died (Oct 8; 10/19, Gregorian calendar) in Mitau (now Jelgava, Latvia), a town lying forty kilometers south-west of Riga, and at the time the capital of Courland.  He was the son of Christian Wilhelm Beseke, a well-known cleric serving as the inspector of the Jerichau Kreis.  Beseke matriculated in 1766 at the university at Frankfurt/Oder to study theology, then changed to philosophy and law.  He was also working as a private tutor to a young nobleman, and in this capacity accompanied his charge to Halle in 1771, where in 1772 he received both a magister (7 October) and a doctorate in law, and began lecturing in both philosophy and law.  In 1774 he accepted a position at Mitau, where the city school was being transformed into the Academia Petrina.  Beseke served as its first rector in 1775.  (Immanuel Kant had already declined an invitation to fill this position, although his younger brother, Johann Heinrich (1735-1800), accepted and served as assistant rector from 1775-81 before moving on to a pastoral position.)  Beseke's reputation grew to the point that he was offered (but turned down) the professorship of natural history at Rostock in 1790.  He became a member of the Royal Society of Scholars at Frankfurt/Oder, as well as of the Latin society at Jena.

Beseke wrote popularizations and texts for secondary school students on the subjects of morality, law, logic, natural history, and natural theology.  He sent a copy of his three volume Book of Wisdom and Virtue (1782) to Kant.  In later years he wrote on the conditions of the poor. [Sources: Hamberger 1796, 1:271-4; 1820, 17:159; ADB; Gause 1996, ii.245-46]

Select Publications:

  • De jure cogendi (Halle, 1772).
  • Num Litis Contestatio semper malam fidem inducat? (Halle, 1772).
  • De origine modorum contrahendi apud Romanos (Halle, 1772).
  • Über die Quellen der Moralität und Verbindlichkeit als die ersten Gründe der Moralphilosophie und des Naturrechts (Halle, 1774).
  • Entwurf eines Lehrbuchs der natürlichen Pflichten (Mitau, 1777).
  • Das Buch der Weisheit und Tugend. Ein Lesebuch für Jünglinge von zehn bis zwanzig Jahren, oder auch für jeden, dem daran gelegen ist, weise und gut zu sein, 3 vols. (Dessau and Leipzig, 1782).
  • Über das moralische Gefühl (Dessau, 1782).
  • Thesaurus juris cambialis, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1783).
  • Die Offenbarung Gottes in der Natur. Eine Schrift für Jedermann (Dessau and Leipzig, 1784).
  • Versuch einer praktischen Logik, oder einer Anweisung, den gesunden Verstand recht zu gebrauchen (Leipzig, 1786).
  • Entwurf eines Systems der transzendentellen Chemie (Leipzig, 1787).
  • Probe eines Kritischen Commentars über Kants Kritik der reinen Vernunft (Mitau, 1789).
  • Versuch einer Geschichte der Naturgeschichte (Mitau, 1802).

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