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Michel de Montaigne and political philosophy
I can summarize in three sentences the political philosophy of Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). He outlined his political ideas in several essays, giving many historical examples, but the ideas themselves are straightforward. First, when good people govern, everything will be fine, irrespective of the political system. Second, even the very best political system can be…
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Errors in Montaigne’s views on cultural identity
Despite his erudition and hard work, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) never grasped the need for an objective morality. I find in his essays a relentless effort to obscure ethical truths in order to preach moral relativism and contorted ethical equality. Montaigne employed ethical fallacies as arguments once and again; he employed “universal emotions” to call…
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Michel de Montaigne and cultural identity
In his essays, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), addresses frequently the subject of cultural identity. I can summarize his conclusions in two sentences. First, he acknowledges that each culture has its own rituals, likes and dislikes. Second, he rates those differences as minor if compared with the traits shared by humans in all cultures. Montaigne underlines…
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Michel de Montaigne and intellectual curiosity
When people nowadays speak about curiosity, they usually mean the open, random, wide-range interest in a multiplicity of subjects. They mean the curiosity of children exploring their environment in a disorderly, superficial, inconsistent manner. Renaissance authors such as Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) employed a different definition of curiosity. They carried out research in a multiplicity…
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Democritus and Heraclitus: Montaigne and humanistic ideas
When Renaissance authors undertook the study of antiquity, they had a practical purpose in mind. They expected to learn something useful from ancient history. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) constitutes the very best example. He read relentlessly about the lifestyle of ancient Romans and Greeks with the goal of drawing useful lessons. In his philosophical research,…
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Michel de Montaigne and humanistic ideas
What we call “humanistic” nowadays has little to do with the work of humanists in the sixteenth century, such as Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). They were digging into the past in order to regain concepts that had been lost. They were fighting against centuries of intellectual distortion, misrepresentations, and contradictions. Montaigne would devote dozens of…
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Aristotle: Michel de Montaigne and classical philosophy
Despite his extensive study of classical philosophy, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) paid relatively little attention to Aristotle. He quoted Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Plato and Plutarch more often than he quoted Aristotle. He devoted more efforts to understanding stoicism than he devoted to the Aristotelian views on human nature and happiness. I have a theory…
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Cicero: Michel de Montaigne and classical philosophy
When Michel de Montaigne referred to classical philosophy in his “Essays,” his goal was to illustrate a particular point or give credibility to a certain argument. Montaigne (1533-1592) was not interested in classical philosophy as such. His primary and constant interest was the theory of happiness. Classical authors gave Montaigne a helping hand in his…
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Stoicism: Michel de Montaigne and classical philosophy
Together with scepticism and hedonism, stoicism exerted a strong influence on Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). About one third of his “Essays” convey the doctrines of stoicism. I am referring to the doctrines put forward by Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius in the first century of our era. Seneca produced a large output in terms of…
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Democritus and Heraclitus: Montaigne and classical philosophy
The study of history and philosophy is pointless unless you can draw hands-on advice. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) had understood perfectly the need to draw practical, tangible conclusions from the study of antiquity. I regard Montaigne’s essay “On Democritus and Heraclitus” as one of the best examples in the genre of critical history. Its contents…
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