Michel de Montaigne

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Western Philosophers Renaissance philosophy
Michel de Montaigne
Name:	Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
Birth:	February 28, 1533
Death:	September 13, 1592
School/tradition:	Scepticism
Notable ideas:	The Essay
Influences:	Sextus Empiricus, Plutarch
Influenced:	René Descartes

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (IPA pronunciation: [miʃɛl ekɛm də mɔ̃tɛɲ]) (February 28, 1533–September 13, 1592) was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance. Montaigne is known for popularizing the essay. He became famous for his effortless ability to merge serious intellectual speculation with casual anecdotes and autobiography — and his massive volume Essais (translated literally as "Attempts") contains, to this day, some of the most widely influential essays ever written. Montaigne had a direct influence on writers the world over, from William Shakespeare to Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Friedrich Nietzsche to Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

In his own time, Montaigne was admired more as a statesman than as an author. His tendency in his essays to diverge into anecdotes and personal ruminations was seen as a detriment rather than an innovation, and his stated motto that "I am myself the matter of my book" was viewed by contemporary writers as self-indulgent. In time, however, Montaigne would be recognized as expressing, perhaps better than any other author of his time, the doubts and thoughts of his age. Remarkably modern even to readers today, Montaigne's attempt to examine the world through the lens of the only thing he can depend on implicitly — his own judgment — makes him more accessible than any other author of the Renaissance. Much of modern literary non-fiction owes its genesis to Montaigne, and writers of all kinds continue to read Montaigne for his masterful balance of intellectual knowledge and personal story-telling.

1 Life
2 Essays
3 Related writers and influence
4 External links

[edit] Life

Montaigne was born in the Aquitaine region of France, on the family estate Château de Montaigne, in a town now called Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne, not far from Bordeaux. The family was very rich; his grandfather, Ramon Eyquem, had made a fortune as a herring merchant and had bought the estate in 1477. His father, Pierre Eyquem, was a soldier in Italy for a time, and developed some very progressive views on education there; he had also been the mayor of Bordeaux. His mother, Antoinette de Louppes, came from a rich Spanish Jewish family, but was herself raised Protestant. Although she lived a great part of Montaigne's life near him, and even survived him, Montaigne doesn't make any mention of her in his work. In contrast, Montaigne's relationship with his father played a prominent role in his life and work.

From the moment of his birth, Montaigne's education followed a pedagogical plan sketched by his father - and secured by the advice of the latter's humanist friends. Soon after his birth, Montaigne was brought to a small cottage, where he lived the first three years of life in the sole company of a peasant family, "in order to", according to the elder Montaigne, "approximate the boy to the people, and to the life conditions of the people, who need our help." After these first spartan years spent amongst the lowest social class, Montaigne was brought back to the Château. The objective was for Latin to become his first language. The intellectual education of Montaigne was assigned to a German tutor (a doctor named Horstanus who couldn't speak French); and strict orders were given to him and to everyone in the castle (servants included) to always speak to the boy in Latin - and even to use the language among themselves anytime he was around. The Latin education of Montaigne was accompanied by constant intellectual and spiritual stimulation. The sciences were presented to him in most pedagogical ways: through games, conversation, exercises of solitary meditation, etc., but never through books. Music was played from the moment of Montaigne's awakening. An épinettier (playing a zither original to the French region of Vosges) constantly followed Montaigne and his tutor, playing a tune any time the boy became bored or tired. When he wasn't in the mood for music, he could do whatever he wished: play games, sleep, be alone - most important of all was that the boy wouldn't be obliged to anything, but that, at the same time, he would have everything in order to take advantage of his freedom.

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Around the year 1539, he was sent to study at a prestigious boarding school in Bordeaux, the Collège de Guyenne, and afterwards he studied law in Toulouse and entered a career in the legal system. He was a counselor of the Court des Aides of Périgueux, and in 1557 he was appointed counselor of the Parlement in Bordeaux (a high court). From 1561 to 1563 he was at the court of Charles IX. While serving at the Bordeaux Parliament, he became very close friends with the humanist writer Étienne de la Boétie whose death in 1563 deeply influenced Montaigne.

Montaigne married in 1565; he had five daughters, but only one survived childhood.

Following the petition of his father, Montaigne started to work on the first translation of the Spanish monk Raymond Sebond's Theologia naturalis, which he published a year after his father's death in 1568. After this he inherited the Château de Montaigne, to which he moved back in 1570. Another literary accomplishment of Montaigne, before the publication of his Essays, was the posthumous edition of his friend Boétie's works.

In 1571, he retired from public life to the Tower of the Château, Montaigne's so-called "citadelle", where he almost totally isolated himself from every social (and familiar) affair. Locked up in his vast library he began work on his Essays, first published in 1580. On the day of his 38th birthday, as he entered this almost ten-year isolation period, he let the following inscription crown the bookshelves of his working chamber:

"An. Christi 1571 aet. 38, pridie cal. cart., die suo natali, Mich. Montanus, servitii aulici et munerum publicorum jamdudum pertaesus, dum se integer in doctarum virginum recessit sinus, ubi quietus et omnium securus quantillum in tandem superabit decursi multa jam plus parte spatii; si modo fata duint exigat istas sedes et dulces latebras, avitasque, libertati suae, tranquillitatique, et otio consecravit."

Translated into English, albeit amateurishly and poorly with help requested, this inscription means:

1571 A.D. Michel Montaigne, 38 years old, weary of long years of public service and while still vigorous, would teach the young by returning to the bosom of his ancestral home where all is quiet and free from care, and with this little effort finally overcome the censure of public life; if his candor has caused his exile, it is to this sweet sanctuary and his own sanctified freedom, tranquility, and leisure.

Michel de Montaigne

During this time of the Wars of Religion in France, Montaigne, himself a Roman Catholic, acted as a moderating force, respected both by the Catholic King Henry III and the Protestant Henry of Navarre.

In 1578, Montaigne, whose health had always been excellent, started suffering from painful kidney stones, a sickness he had inherited from his father's family. From 1580 to 1581, Montaigne traveled in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy, partly in search for a cure. He kept a detailed journal recording various episodes and regional differences. It was published much later, in 1774, under the title Travel Journal.

While in Rome in 1581, he learned that he had been elected mayor of Bordeaux; he returned and served until 1585, again moderating between Catholics and Protestants. The plague broke out in Bordeaux toward the end of his term.

Montaigne continued to extend, revise and oversee the publication of his Essays. In 1588 he met the writer Marie de Gournay who admired his work and would later edit and publish it. King Henry III was assassinated in 1589, and Montaigne then helped to keep Bordeaux loyal to Henry of Navarre, who would go on to become King Henry IV.

Michel de Montaigne

Montaigne died in 1592 at the Château de Montaigne and was buried nearby. Later his remains were moved to the church of a Commandery of St. Antoine at Bordeaux. The church no longer exists: it became the Convent des Feuillants, which has also disappeared. The Bordeaux Tourist Office says that Montaigne is buried at the Musée Aquitaine, Faculté des Lettres, Université Bordeaux 3 Michel de Montaigne, Pessac. His heart is preserved in the parish church of Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne.

The humanities branch of the University of Bordeaux is named after him: Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux 3.

[edit] Essays

See the main article: Essays (Montaigne).

The book is a collection of a large number of short subjective treatments of various topics. Montaigne's stated goal is to describe man, and especially himself, with utter frankness. He finds the great variety and volatility of human nature to be its most basic features. He describes his own poor memory, his ability to solve problems and mediate conflicts without truly getting emotionally involved, his disdain for man's pursuit of lasting fame, and his attempts to detach himself from worldly things to prepare for his timely death.

He writes about his disgust with the religious conflicts of his time, believing that humans are not able to attain true certainty (skepticism). His long Apology for Raymond Sebond contains his famous motto, "What do I know?"

Montaigne considered marriage necessary for the raising of children, but disliked the strong feelings of passionate love as being detrimental to freedom. In education, he favored concrete examples and experience over the teaching of abstract knowledge that has to be accepted uncritically.

[edit] Related writers and influence

Among the thinkers exploring similar ideas, one can mention Erasmus, Thomas More, and Guillaume Budé, all working about fifty years before Montaigne.

Montaigne's book of essays is one of the few books scholars can confirm Shakespeare had in his library; the essay "On Cannibals" was a direct source for The Tempest.

Much of Blaise Pascal's skepticism in his Pensées was a result of reading Montaigne, and his influence is also seen in the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Friedrich Nietzsche was moved to judge of Montaigne: "That such a man wrote has truly augmented the joy of living on this Earth." (from "Schopenhauer as Educator")

Judith Shklar introduces her book Ordinary Vices (1984), "It is only if we step outside the divinely ruled moral universe that we can really put our minds to the common ills we inflict upon one another each day. That is what Montaigne did and that is why he is the hero of this book, In spirit he is on every one of its pages..."

Montaigne influenced Spanish Poet Azorin and it can be clearly seen Azorin`s essays "Times and Things".