Ignorance, improvisation and incoherence are not sources of artistic authenticity. At best, they can lead to colourful chaos or waste. At worst, they can do the artist in.
When we refer to artistic and philosophical authenticity, we are referring to truthfulness, consistency, and accuracy. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) devoted twenty years to the pursuit of literary authenticity, and he succeeded fairly well.
Nevertheless, Montaigne’s authenticity remains asymmetric: It reached a very high level in his areas of expertise (history, law, religion), but decreased in other areas (health, warfare, or epistemology).
Montaigne deployed good efforts to research his subjects, but his personal library was limited. I do admire his endless curiosity and dedication to seeking the truth, but nobody can become a master in all trades. Let us look at several examples that show the asymmetry in his literary authenticity.
Montaigne’s essays based on personal experience
[1] His authenticity was superb in essays directly based on his own experience. For instance, his essay “Of Experience” is presenting us a first-hand recollection of Montaigne’s efforts to acquire knowledge and improve his own life.
I perceive the same deep authenticity in Montaigne’s essay “Of the Education of Children,” which is based on his personal experience as a father. Montaigne criticizes rote memorization as a pointless exercise, and favours the development of critical thinking.
Similarly, Montaigne’s essay “Of Friendship” is drawn from the friendship between Montaigne and Etienne de la Boetie. In many aspects, this essay is mirroring the writings of Aristotle (384-322 BC) in the “Nicomachean Ethics,” which view close friendships as a major contributing factor to happiness.
Montaigne’s essays drawn from semi-accurate facts
[2] Montaigne’s authenticity slightly decreases when writing about speculative subjects that are still close to his experience. I’m referring for instance to his essay “Mortality and Death” in which he calls for quiet acceptance of one’s own mortality.
Also in this essay, Montaigne refers to his friend Etienne de la Boetie (1530-1563), who had passed away fairly young. The shock of losing his best friend practically overnight must have played a role in Montaigne’s decision to quit public office and retire to live in a farmhouse.
The lost of his best friend prompted Montaigne to reflect on his own life. The human lifespan is rather short, he realized. It is thus crucial to employ one’s time optimally, concentrating on the few matters that really count.
Montaigne use a similar tone in his essays “Of Death” and “Of the Vanity of Words,” where he categorizes many pursuits in life as superficial and empty.
I regard this second group of essays as less authentic (less truthful) than the first because Montaigne is using ready-made wisdom that he had taken from Seneca (4 BC-AD 65), Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD), and Epictetus (AD 55-135).
There is no direct logical connection between Etienne de la Boetie’s early death and Montaigne’s preoccupation with living a semi-ascetic life. He must have been immersed in the works of the three ancient stoics that I just mentioned above.
Montaigne’s essays drawn from external sources
[3] Montaigne’s authenticity (accuracy, consistency) drops dramatically when he writes about subjects drawn from ancient authors, contemporary explorers, philosophers or theologians.
In this respect, I can point for instance to Montaigne’s essay “Of Cannibals,” in which he is referring to the explorer Jean de Lery’s journey to Brazil and his encounter with cannibals.
As I stated above, ignorance and improvisation tend to lead to colourful chaos, not to sound conclusions. Montaigne argues that Brazilian cannibals have their own morality, which is not better or worse than the ethics of sixteenth-century Europe.
Montaigne’s argument is so far-fetched that doesn’t deserve further consideration. I’m however not surprised to see a sharp decline in authenticity when Montaigne addresses subjects that he has only superficially researched.
I’m placing in this group Montaigne’s semi-historical essays such as the ones titled “Of the Inconstancy of Our Actions” and “Of the Power of Imagination.” In those writings, Montaigne is arguing on the basis of historical anecdotes, for instance about Socrates (469-399 BC) or Julius Caesar (100-44 BC).
Montaigne is recounting “historical” anecdotes drawn from Plutarch (46-120 AD) and other ancient authors, well-known for their poor reliability.
In this group of essays, Montaigne proves mostly incapable of reaching conclusions; he gives arguments in favour and then against his thesis, and often ends up in confusion.
Montaigne’s relativism and scepticism are the driven by his meagre research of those subjects. Those essays reflect a fairly low level of authenticity. Their philosophical meandering leads nowhere in particular. They are entertaining, but inconclusive.
Montaigne’s pursuit of literary authenticity
The lowest level of authenticity appears in essays where the research is practically inexistent. I am referring for example to Montaigne’s essay titled “Of the Custom of Wearing Clothes.”
Montaigne is defending a thesis (“clothing varies from place to place, and so does social organization and values”) without having first-hand evidence of his examples.
As a result, his arguments are rather weak. He overestimates the role of geography and culture, and underestimates the role of philosophy in shaping a social organization.
Clothing and social protocol are anecdotal aspects that don’t define a society as good or bad. Due to insufficient research or personal experience in the area, Montaigne gets lost in details that do not add much to the discussion.
Let us nonetheless celebrate the enormous width and breath of Montaigne’s literary works. Authenticity was a worthy goal to pursue even if he did not succeed all the time. I would grant him in any case a very high mark in this area.
If you are interested in putting rational ideas into practice in all areas here and now, I recommend you my book “Rational living, rational working.”