Nützt es dem Volke, betrogen zu werden? Est-il utile au Peuple d'être trompé?

For the first time, this edition presents all existing submissions – transcribed from the manuscripts – for the famous 1780 essay contest of the Prussian Académie des Sciences et Belles-Lettres. Frederick II forced his academy into this scandalous topic in 1777, and it became the most successful of all essay contests in the 18th century. Europe was shocked and the problem, known since Plato, has still not been solved today. The 1780 question about the legitimacy of deceiving the people may be considered the wathershed of German Enlightenment. From then on, the qualitative determination of what Aufklärung was or should be transformed into the quantitative question of who should be enlightened? A detailed introduction into the edition provides information about the history and topicality of the problem of legitimate deceit of the people (from antiquity to the present), the discussion within the academy, its decision procedures concerning the attribution of the prize, a partial denanonymization of the manuscripts, and a brief contextualization of the writings. The manuscript holdings of the Academy in Berlin as well as the shape of the manuscripts are described in detail. The edition will contain both an index of names and a subject index. The latter turned out to be a very informative and detailed catalog of Enlightenment concepts of virtues, vices, and standards.