Essays is the title of a book written by Michel de Montaigne that was first published in 1580. Montaigne essentially invented the literary form of essay, a short subjective treatment of a given topic, of which the book contains a large number. Essai is French for "trial" or "attempt". Michel de Montaigne Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (February 28, 1533 – September 13, 1592) was an influential French Renaissance writer, generally considered to be the inventor of the personal essay. ... Events March 1 - Michel de Montaigne signs the preface to his most significant work, Essays. ... An essay is a short work that treats of a topic from an authors personal point of view, often taking into account subjective experiences and personal reflections upon them. ...

Style

Montaigne writes with a highly crafted rhetoric designed to intrigue and involve the reader, sometimes appearing to move in a stream-of-thought from topic to topic and at other times employing a structured style which gives more emphasis to the didactic nature of his work. His arguments are often supported with quotes from classical Greek and Roman texts.

Content (Montaigne's thoughts)

Montaigne's stated goal in his book 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. A typical quote is "I have never seen a greater monster or miracle than myself." He describes his own poor memory, his ability to solve problems and mediate conflicts without truly getting emotionally involved, his disgust for man's pursuit of lasting fame, and his attempts to detach himself from worldly things to prepare for death.

Montaigne is disgusted with the violent and for him barbaric conflicts between Catholics and Protestants of his time, and his writings show a pessimism and skepticism quite uncharacteristic for the Renaissance. Pessimism, generally, describes a belief that things are bad, and tend to become worse; or that looks to the eventual triumph of evil over good; it contrasts with optimism, the contrary belief in the goodness and betterment of things generally. ... Occams razor non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem or plurality should not be posited without necessity is a central tenet of skeptical thought. ... By Region: Italian Renaissance Northern Renaissance *French Renaissance *German Renaissance *English Renaissance The Renaissance was an influential cultural movement which brought about a period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation, at the dawn of modern European history. ...

Overall, Montaigne was a strong supporter of humanism. He believed in God but declined to speculate about His nature. Humanism is an active ethical and philosophical approach to life focusing on human solutions to human issues through rational arguments without recourse to a god, gods, sacred texts or religious creeds. ... The term God is capitalized in the English language as a proper noun when used to refer to a specific monotheistic concept of a Supreme Being. ...

He exhibited a quite modern cultural relativism, recognizing that laws, morals and religions of the various cultures, while often quite different, may all be equally valid. He opposed the conquest of the New World, deploring the suffering it brought to the natives. Cultural relativism is the principle that an individual humans beliefs and activities make sense in terms of his or her own culture. ... Spanish conquest and colonization of the Americas began with the arrival in America of Christopher Columbus in 1492. ...

Mentioning the case of Martin Guerre as an example, he believes that humans cannot attain certainty, and he rejects general and absolute statements and all dogma. His skepticism is best exposed in the long essay "An Apology for Raymond Sebond" (12th chapter of book 2) which has frequently been published separately. We cannot trust our reasoning because thoughts just occur to us: we don't truly control them. We do not have good reasons to consider ourselves superior to the animals. He is highly skeptical of confessions obtained under torture, pointing out that such confessions can be made up by the suspect just to escape the torture he is subjected to (apparently the first mention of this argument against torture). In the middle of the section that is usually titled "Man's Knowledge Cannot Make Him Good," he wrote that his motto was "What do I know?". Since the long "An Apology for Raymond Sebond" is hardly ever included in publications of his essays, this expression of his main idea is generally unavailable. Martin Guerre was a French peasant who was at the center of a famous case of imposture in the 16th century. ...

Montaigne considered marriage necessary for the raising of children, but disliked the strong feelings of romantic love as being detrimental to freedom. One of his quotations is "Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside desperate to get out." Marriage is a relationship and bond between individuals (termed spouses -- a male spouse is a husband and a female spouse, a wife) that plays a key role in the definition of many families. ... Romantic love is a form of love that is often regarded as different from simply sexual love, or lust. ...

In education, he favored concrete examples and experience over the teaching of abstract knowledge that has to be accepted uncritically.

The remarkable modernity of thought apparent in Montaigne's essays, as well as their sustained popularity, made them the most prominent work in French philosophy until the Enlightenment. Their influence in French education and culture is still strong. The official portrait of former French president François Mitterrand pictured him facing the camera, holding an open copy of the Essays in his hands. For the concept in mysticism, philosophy and psychology, see Enlightenment (concept) For the Hindu religious concept of enlightenment, see moksha For the Buddhist religious concept, see Bodhi, Satori For the Yoga concept of enlightenment, see Yogic Enlightenment For the period in European history, The Age of Enlightenment For the corresponding... François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (October 26, 1916 – January 8, 1996;   pronunciation?) was a French politician. ...

Chronology

Montaigne heavily edited Essays at various points in his life. Sometimes he would insert just one word, while at other times he would insert whole passages. Many editions mark this with letters as follows:

• A: passages written 1571-1580, published 1580
• B: passages written 1580-1588, published 1588
• C: passages written 1588-1592, published 1595 (posthumously)

Analysis of the differences and additions between editions shows how Montaigne's thoughts evolved over time. Remarkably, he does not seem to remove previous writings, even when they conflict with his newer views.

External links

• The Charles Cotton translation of some of Montaigne's essays:
  • plain text version by Project Gutenberg
  • HTML version at the University of Adelaide
  • searchable HTML version at Oregon State University
• The complete, searchable text of the Villey-Saulnier edition from the ARFTL project at the University of Chicago (French)
• The Great Conversation Yahoo discussion group will be discussing a selection of Montaigne's essays in the months of June and July, 2005. The selections are: Of Custom, and That We Should Not Easily Change a Law Received; Of Pedantry; Of the Education of Children; That It Is Folly to Measure Truth and Error by Our Own Capacity; Of Cannibals; That the Relish of Good and Evil Depends in a Great Measure upon the Opinion We Have of Them; Upon Some Verses of Virgil.