Mendelssohn worked within the framework of Wolffian metaphysics and psychology, and thus he accepted the definition of sensible perception as clear but confused cognition. He accepted Wolff’s explanation that pleasure arises in the sensible perception of perfection, but also Baumgarten’s transformation of that formula into the explanation of beauty as the perfection of sensible cognition: in Mendelssohn’s terms, “the essence of the fine arts and sciences consists in an artful, sensibly perfect r