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Michel De Montaigne and the Politics of Skepticism

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Michel De Montaigne and the Politics of Skepticism CHAPTER FOUR MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE AND THE POLITICS OF SKEPTICISM When Henri Estienne and Gentian Hervet brought out Latin trans­ lations of the work of Sex tus Empiricus in 1562 and 1569, they fig­ uratively set off a bombshell of ideas that had been virtually for­ gotten by the learned world.1 Michel de Montaigne holds a crucial place in the history of skepticism in early modern Europe because he was one of the most influential members of the first generation to become reacquainted with the work of Sex tus Empiricus. The politics of this great Gascon writer of the sixteenth century was above all a politics of human fallibility. Again and again, Montaigne's observations and recommendations concerning govern­ ment and politics focus on the weaknesses and limitations of human beings. This vision of fallibility, in turn, is best understood as a development of key categories, strategies, and vocabulary of the ancient skeptics. If it can be established that Montaigne's politics of human fall­ ibility belongs in the tradition of skepticism, this will be an im­ portant corrective of recent work that casts his politics as largely Stoic or Epicurean. In addition, if it can be shown that Montaigne's politics of skepticism was neither wholly conservative nor glibly liberal, another set of common assumptions will be undermined. Fi­ nally, a careful analysis of Montaigne's work is significant in itself as an example of one of the forms that a skeptical politics can take. The ancient skepticism that had come down to Montaigne consist­ ed largely of the writings of Diogenes Laertius and Cicero, along with the new translations of Sextus Empiricus. The new materials from Sextus added a whole new dimension of breadth and depth to what had been available from the other sources, and Montaigne was one of the first to take advantage of them. As we have seen in the foregoing chapters, Sextus's works dist­ inguished two types of skepticism, the Pyrrhonism of Pyrrho and 1 Popkin, The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza, pp. 19-20. MONTAIGNE AND THE POLITICS OF SKEPTICISM 95 Aenesidemus, among others, and the Academic skepticism of Socrates, Arcesilaus, Carneades, and (although he did not mention him) Cicero. Particular strategies and arguments of individual skeptics will be reviewed below as they become relevant to Montaigne's politics. A short survey of political languages that Montaigne does not use to any significant extent will help clear the ground for the claim that his politics was skeptical. Montaigne was trained as a jurist, but there is very little in his work of the categories or vocabulary of Roman law, in its ancient or early modern versions. As we shall see below, it appears largely as a foil for skeptical strategies. "(B) We were perplexed over Ulpian, we are still perplexed over Bartolus and Baldus. We should have wiped out the traces of this innumerable diversity of opinions... " ? Montaigne served as a magistrate, first at the Cour des Aides in Périgueux and then in the Parlement of Bordeaux, for more than fif­ teen years. He quoted Beza's poetry in the Essays, corresponded with Hotman and Du Plessis Mornay, and strolled with Pasquier at Blois, but he did not sympathize with or use the language of French constitutional history. His only remarks on the radical constitu­ tionalist doctrine that peoples have the right to overthrow their kings were critical. Montaigne was associated with the politiques, including L'Hôpital and Bodin, but he did not subscribe to anything resembling their versions of absolutism. He professed loyalty to his king, but he made it very clear that there were significant limits to that loyalty. Montaigne received a classical education, learning Latin before he knew French, and cherished the Roman citizenship that he obtained. An early work of Montaigne's best friend, Etienne de La Boétie, entitled "On Voluntary Servitude," contains a substantial amount of civic humanist material, urging the value of civic virtue in the Roman republican tradition. Nevertheless, although Montaigne read this material and quoted Tacitus, Livy, Cicero, and other sources of this tradition, he rarely used them in a political, republican 2 Thibaudetand Rat, eds., Montaigne, p. 1044; Frame, trans., The Complete Works of Montaigne, p. 817. The translations have been borrowed, with some emendations, from the Frame edition. Further citations are in the text, with the French edition identified as "TR" and the English version identified as "F". .
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