Three words suffice me to summarize the literary legacy of Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592): Think for yourself. In each of his essays, he calls for self-reliance, critical thinking, open-mindedness, and personal initiative.
Unfortunately, historians have given excessive weight to the stylistic aspects of Montaigne’s work, and overlooked his ideas and attitude.
Indeed, Montaigne invented the essay as a literary genre but it represents a small step compared with the dialogues written by Plato (427-347 BC), the letters written by Seneca (4 BC-65 AD), or the brief treatises written by Cicero (106-43 BC).
What about its meditative standpoint? Does thoughtfulness make Montaigne’s essays unique? Not at all. I cannot see that Montaigne’s essays are more reflective than the “Meditations” written by Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD).
If we take Montaigne’s essay “On Experience,” which is in part autobiographical, we can find observations reminiscent of those made by Marcus Aurelius fourteen centuries earlier.
Neither do scepticism or relativism make Montaigne unique because of the large number of freethinkers in France during the Middle Ages. Montaigne is a notable custodian of a worthy tradition, but not its creator or initiator.
Humanism and Montaigne’s literary legacy
When Montaigne published his essays in 1580, he included his “Apology for Raymond Sebond.” It is a remarkable work in terms of theological depth, but its arguments had been already known long before Montaigne.
In this essay, a freethinker looks back kindly upon the work of a freethinker from a previous generation, but his arguments about the limits of human reason are spurious and specious. He is bringing back Plato’s world of pure ideas, and lamenting that they remain inaccessible to us. Nothing new under the sun.
What about Montaigne’s humanism? I mean by “humanism” his deep knowledge of ancient Roman and Greek literature. In particular, Montaigne was fond of quoting Julius Caesar (100-44 BC), biographical works by Plutarch (46-120 AD), and the “Nicomachean Ethics” by Aristotle (384-322 BC).
I do praise Montaigne for his humanistic erudition, but in this area, I would not rate him higher than Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) or Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375). They did an immense preparatory work that Montaigne found already done.
For the above reasons, I find that Montaigne’s call for self-reliance, critical thinking, open-mindedness, and initiative are much more relevant for defining his literary legacy. I am going to give a few examples that illustrate those points.
Self-reliance and Montaigne’s literary legacy
[1] Self-reliance: We can find the theme of self-reliance in particular in the early essays by Montaigne. I’m referring to the essays he wrote in the period 1572-1574. At that time, he was still experimenting with the essayistic format.
He wrote in that period major essays such as “Of Liars” and “Of Constancy,” where he comes to the conclusion that human happiness is vastly aided by self-reliance.
Without self-reliance and self-confidence, it is impossible to resist the temptation to misrepresent facts or abandon difficult projects when we are subjected to strong social pressure.
[2] Critical thinking: In a second period, between 1574 and 1580, Montaigne writes frequently about critical thinking as a key element of successful living.
For instance, he condemns blind memorization in his essay “On the Education of Children” and calls for helping children learn to think for themselves. We should teach children how to assess facts and draw conclusions, instead of memorizing the conclusions drawn by third parties.
A similar argument shapes Montaigne’s essay titled “Of the Power of Imagination,” where he encourages creativity, critical thinking, and personal initiative.
Note that Montaigne was not employing the words “critical thinking,” which have been coined in the twentieth century. He was instead using expressions such us “thinking for oneself” or “looking at things in perspective.”
Philosophy and Montaigne’s literary legacy
[3] Open-mindedness: In the period 1580-1588, Montaigne writes repeatedly about tolerance and open-mindedness. The reason is that he had witnessed awful events during the French religious wars, terrible massacres, torture and confiscations.
In this period, he reflects about the psychological reasons or ideas that render people intolerant, foolish and conceited. I can point for example to his essays titled “Of Experience” and “Of Vanity,” where he studies and laments intellectual distortions.
[4] Personal initiative: In his final period, between 1588 and 1592, Montaigne revised some of his essays, emphasising the theme of personal initiative. My favourite revised essay from this period is “Of Solitude.”
In this revised essay, the older Montaigne notes that a good measure of solitude is a prerequisite for certain achievements. I am referring to tangible or intangible achievements.
We need solitude from time to time, for instance if we want to organize our ideas, make plans for the future, develop fresh initiatives, or simply pass review to our errors and figure out in which way we can avoid them in the future.
All in all, Montaigne’s literary legacy should be regarded as an attitude, a philosophical standpoint, more than a dishevelled array of literary artifices. We can learn much more by grasping his thought patterns than by analysing his ancient quotations.
If you are interested in putting rational ideas into practice in all areas, I recommend you my book titled “Sequentiality: The amazing power of finding the right sequence of steps.”