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,…

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…

In his “Essays,” Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) often called for reason and tolerance. Those are distinctive features of humanism, together with critical thinking, a love of ancient history, and a strong preference for experience over theory. Montaigne was aware that sheer distance, whether temporal or geographical, can prompt people to suspicion. He wrote that “every…

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) is the archetypical writer from the Renaissance, the archetypical example of Humanism. Nowadays, his ideas are almost forgotten. They are no longer taught in today’s education system; the study of classical Greek and Roman history, philosophy and literature are no longer a priority. What is Humanism? The concept is related to…