Montaigne
He invented the essay to ask a single question of everything: what do I know? His honest answer was, almost nothing for certain.
Retiring to a tower on his estate near Bordeaux, Montaigne began writing what he called essais, attempts, turning his attention on himself with unprecedented candor. What do I know, he asked, and found that the more he examined his certainties the more they dissolved, leaving custom, fear, and habit where he had expected reason. His revived skepticism became a school of tolerance and self-knowledge: suspend your confidence, watch your own mind, and judge others gently. Descartes set out to defeat the doubt Montaigne had made fashionable, and modern prose has never stopped imitating his voice.
Places
Ideas
Words
“What do I know?”
Works
Life & Moments
Born near Bordeaux
Born at the family estate near Bordeaux, raised at first to speak only Latin.
Retreat to the Tower
Withdrew to his library to write the Essays, inventing a form built around a single question: what do I know?
What Do I Know?
Examined his own mind with unprecedented candor and found custom and habit where he had expected certainty. Skepticism became tolerance.
Death at Montaigne
Died in his tower library, having invented the essay and taught Europe to doubt gently.
Influence
Influenced by
- Sextus Empiricus
The rediscovery of Sextus in the sixteenth century handed Montaigne the skeptical arguments behind his question, what do I know?
- Plutarch
Montaigne quarried Plutarch endlessly; the Essays are steeped in his Lives and his morals.
- Seneca
Montaigne kept Seneca constantly at hand and said so, taking from him the habit of writing philosophy as a personal address rather than a system, which is most of what the essay form became.
