Montaigne Review

 Montaigne Review

The Essays of Michel de Montaigne were made of three books and 107 chapters that are quite very lengthy. It was originally written in French from 1570 to 1592 and were mere records of his traits of character and his humorous side. The essay was written in a rhetoric theme to intrigue the reader and employs a structure style that gives focus on the didactic nature of his wok. This essay was considered as an important contribution to writing and skepticism. Overall, his essay was exploratory journey which is written through logical steps to bring skepticism to what is being discussed in this book.

The essay describes his own self in full honesty. The insight to human nature that is describe in the book is a mere product of his introspection. It comes with intriguing titles such as “Of Sadness and Sorrow, Of Conscience and Of Posting”. In this book, it depicts his mistrust to human reason and experience as he explained that while man is finite, the truth is infinite that is why human capacity is naturally inhibited in understanding the reality in its fullness. Even if he did not believe in absolute truth, he still believed that such truth can be achieved through divine revelation. 

He further cites as an example, Martin Guerre where he believes that humans cannot attain certainty. His skepticism is clearly expressed in his long essay entitled, “An Apology for Raymond Sebond”. He further explains that humans cannot trust their own reasoning because the thoughts just happen to any one and have no control over it. And he does not consider humans to be superior to animals. In his essay, Montaigne does not consider marriage as necessary for raising children and disliked the strong feelings of romantic love as this is detrimental to freedom. 

When it comes to education, he favored experience and real life examples than teaching the abstract knowledge. His essay has profound influence on the play of William Shakespeare which have both similarities in terms of language, structures and themes. The modern approach in his essay and sustained popularity makes it as one of the prominent works in French philosophy. 

Overall, Montaigne is one of the best writers that seduce his readers while reading his essay. This book is simply about himself from how he eat, how he make love, and his duty to his family and friends. This is about his life and his own discovery of his own self subject of investigation. He was able to manipulate his readers into understanding who he really was that even makes this book intriguing.