DOCSLIB.ORG

Montaigne on Friendship, Self-Knowledge, and the Art of Living

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Montaigne on Friendship, Self-Knowledge, and the Art of Living CHAPTER 2 Recapturing the Self: Montaigne on Friendship, Self-Knowledge, and the Art of Living Vincent Caudron 1 Introduction: An Exceptional Friendship From both a historical—anthropological and an autobiographical point of view, Montaigne’s travel journal that recounts his journey to Italy between October 1580 and November 1581 is a very interesting document.1 Not only does it contain detailed and accurate descriptions of the enormous variety of local customs and habits that he encountered, it also—due to the fact that Montaigne never intended to publish his journal—gives a valuable, even voy- euristic glimpse into the life and personality of its author. Montaigne draws a disarming picture of his impressions, physical ailments, and bad habits; the way he relates his agony from kidney stones is unusually outspoken and unre- served. His surprisingly graphic and explicit descriptions inform the reader of how “clear” or “cloudy” his urine is, how much “gravel” he releases, and how “windy” he feels. Amidst these jarring descriptions, however, Montaigne also somewhat unexpectedly expresses intense grief over the loss of his best friend, Étienne de La Boétie, who most likely died of the plague eighteen years earlier.2 His sadness does not appear to have been a single instance of loss and sorrow, but rather a red thread that ran throughout his entire life. One touching passage in which Montaigne describes his life after the death of La Boétie as “smoke and ashes, a night dark and dreary” is particularly telling: For in truth if I compare all the rest of my life—although by the grace of God I have lived it sweetly and easily, exempt (save for the death of such a friend) of grievous affliction in full tranquility of mind, contenting 1 Michel de Montaigne, The Journal of Montaigne’s Travels in Italy: In Italy by Way of Switzerland and Germany in 1580 and 1581, ed. William George Waters (London: BiblioLife, 2009), 252. 2 Étienne de La Boétie worked as a magistrate at the court of Bordeaux, where he met Montaigne in 1557. Besides his famous Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, he wrote a couple of sonnets. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���5 | doi ��.��63/9789004�988��_004 28 Caudron myself with the natural endowments which I was born with and not going about looking for others—if I compare it, I say, to those four years which it was vouchsafed to me to enjoy in the sweet companionship and fellowship of a man like that, it is but smoke and ashes, a night dark and dreary. Since the day when I lost him [. .] I merely drag wearily on. The very pleasures which are proffered me do not console me: they redouble my sorrow at his loss.3 Obviously, there is nothing strange about grief for a deceased friend, yet the scope and intensity of Montaigne’s affliction seem to reveal something impor- tant about the impact that the brief, intense friendship with La Boétie had on him. Given that Montaigne never expressed a comparable state of sor- row over the loss of his brother, father, or five deceased daughters, one can- not help but wonder what it was that made his relationship with La Boétie so unique and existentially far-reaching. This issue has sparked a vivid debate in the extensive literature on Montaigne. Based on the rather explicit language that the two friends tended to use to describe each other and their relation- ship, one may speculate that their mutual affection was sexual in nature. Yet, seeing as Montaigne consistently differentiates between sensual relationships and friendships, this hypothesis is implausible.4 Rather, the terms that they use to characterise their relationship are meant to refer to the Renaissance ideal of ancient friendship, by which both Montaigne and La Boétie were fas- cinated. In one of his sonnets, for instance, La Boétie compares Montaigne with Alcibiades, while Montaigne, in his turn, alludes to La Boétie’s Socratic features.5 3 Michel de Montaigne, On Affectionate Relationships, in Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays, ed. and trans. M.A. Screech (London: Penguin Books, 2003), 217. Hereafter referred to as “Essays.” 4 Cf. S. Frampton, When I Am Playing with My Cat, How Do I Know She Is Not Playing with Me? Montaigne and Being in Touch with Life (London: Faber & Faber, 2011) and S. Bakewell, How to Live or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer (London: Chatto & Windus, 2010). 5 Alcibiades was an aristocratic rhetorician and lived in Athens in the first half of the fifth century BC. He was part of the inner circle of Socrates, the famous Greek philosopher, and he was known for his interest in bodily beauty and pleasure. At the end of Plato’s Symposium, he declares his love for his friend Socrates, a declaration that has generally been seen by phi- losophers as an example of a relationship that focuses on the person as the object of love and does not instead seek to transcend the object and strive towards the Platonic idea (or form) of love..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Introduction
    © Copyright, Princeton University Press. No part of this book may be distributed, posted, or reproduced in any form by digital or mechanical means without prior written permission of the publisher. Introduction This is first an essay about emotions and attitudes that include some estimate of the self, such as pride, self-esteem, vanity, arro- gance, shame, humility, embarrassment, resentment, and indigna- tion. It is also about some qualities that bear on these emotions: our integrity, sincerity, or authenticity. I am concerned with the way these emotions and qualities manifest themselves in human life in general, and in the modern world in particular. The essay is therefore what the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), never afraid of a grand title, would have called an exercise in pragmatic anthropology: Physiological knowledge of the human being concerns the investiga- tion of what nature makes of the human being; pragmatic, the inves- tigation of what he as a free-acting being makes of himself, or can and should make of himself.1 Kant here echoes an older theological tradition that while other animals have their settled natures, human beings are free to make For general queries, contact [email protected] Blackburn.indb 1 1/2/2014 1:21:37 PM © Copyright, Princeton University Press. No part of this book may be distributed, posted, or reproduced in any form by digital or mechanical means without prior written permission of the publisher. 2 INTRODUCTION of themselves what they will. So this book is about what we make of ourselves, or can and should make of ourselves.
    [Show full text]
  • Descartes' Bête Machine, the Leibnizian Correction and Religious Influence
    University of South Florida Digital Commons @ University of South Florida Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 4-7-2010 Descartes' Bête Machine, the Leibnizian Correction and Religious Influence John Voelpel University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons, and the Philosophy Commons Scholar Commons Citation Voelpel, John, "Descartes' Bête Machine, the Leibnizian Correction and Religious Influence" (2010). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/3527 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Digital Commons @ University of South Florida. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ University of South Florida. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Descartes’ Bête Machine, the Leibnizian Correction and Religious Influence by John Voelpel A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Philosophy College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Martin Schönfeld, Ph.D. Roger Ariew, Ph.D. Stephen Turner, Ph.D. Date of Approval: April 7, 2010 Keywords: environmental ethics, nonhuman animals, Montaigne, skepticism, active force, categories © Copyright 2010, John W. Voelpel 040410 Note to Reader: Because the quotations from referenced sources in this paper include both parentheses and brackets, this paper uses braces “{}” in any location {inside or outside of quotations} for the writer’s parenthetical-like additions in both text and footnotes. 040410 Table of Contents Abstract iii I. Introduction 1 II. Chapter One: Montaigne: An Explanation for Descartes’ Bête Machine 4 Historical Environment 5 Background Concerning Nonhuman Nature 8 Position About Nature Generally 11 Position About Nonhuman Animals 12 Influence of Religious Institutions 17 Summary of Montaigne’s Perspective 20 III.
    [Show full text]
  • Giordano Bruno and Michel De Montaigne
    Journal of Early Modern Studies, n. 6 (2017), pp. 157-181 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13128/JEMS-2279-7149-20393 (Re)thinking Time: Giordano Bruno and Michel de Montaigne Rachel Ashcroft Durham University (<[email protected]>) Abstract The article seeks to illustrate how the theme of time may be a worthwhile starting point towards uncovering useful connections between the philosophy of Giordano Bruno and that of Michel de Montaigne. Firstly, a brief literature review will assess the admittedly small but promising criticism that has previously attempted to bring the two writers together. Subsequently, the article argues that time is a meaningful way to approach their texts. Specifically, time refers to the drama that arises between the material body, which generally exists within a so-called natural order of time, and the mind which is not tied to the present moment, and is free to contemplate both past and future time. The article argues that Bruno and Montaigne’s understanding of time in this manner leads them to question traditional representations of time, such as the common fear of death, in remarkably similar ways. This process will be illustrated through examples drawn from two chapters of the Essais and a dialogue from the Eroici furori, and will conclude by assessing the straightforward connections that have arisen between the two authors, as well as scope for further research in this area. Keywords: Giordano Bruno, Michel de Montaigne, Sixteenth Century, Time 1. Introduction In recent years, a small number of critics have attempted to establish significant biographical and intellectual connections between Giordano Bruno and Michel de Montaigne.
    [Show full text]
  • Montaigne and Spinoza As Alternatives to Cartesian Weltanschauung
    The Dawn of Modern Era: Montaigne and Spinoza as Alternatives to Cartesian Weltanschauung. According to the Austrian-born American physicist Fritjof Capra (The Turning Point, 1982), Cartesian paradigm is the base for Scientific Revolution and then Industrial Revolution. It supports the idea that world is a machine, that it is explainable as a machine. The ontological separation between mind (res cogitans) and material world (res extensa), operated by René Descartes (1596-1650), posed man beside God, as dominator of natural world and creator of an artificial, technological one; if Medieval Era, during which man was only a (privileged) creature of God, had ended more than a century before, this philosophical operation started the Modern Era from the cultural point of view. It was in perfect accordance with the contemporary Francis Bacon's aim of domination over nature and was continued and perfected by Isaac Newton (1642-1727). The extraordinary impulse for scientific research and technological discovers, which characterised modern period until today, originated from these ideas. Nowadays the most advanced sciences have overcome the classical Newtonian physics, but nevertheless it goes on inspiring biology, medicine, psychology, sociology and, above all, economics. As evidenced by the above mentioned Capra, that's why societies and governments are not able to face strong ecological alarm and to imagine a new way of life. The English anthropologist and psychologist Gregory Bateson too indicated Cartesian dualism as the reason for actual schizophrenic attitude and in several books recommended the reunification of mind and nature; the theologian and philosopher Hans Jonas on his part supported a very similar interpretation for present harmfulness of the dualistic vision (The Phenomenon of Life, 1966).
    [Show full text]
  • The Nominalism in Montaigne's Essays
    Marcelo Fonseca de Oliveira THE NOMINALISM IN MONTAIGNE’S ESSAYS O NOMINALISMO NOS ENSAIOS DE MONTAIGNE Marcelo Fonseca de Oliveira1 ABSTRACT This paper faces the hard and almost unexplored issue on Montaigne’s nominalism. It also contains interesting clues about the skepticism in the Middle Ages. It shows the most important extracts of the Essays that would be written under the nominalism’s influence. Most of the scholars even ruminate on that Montaigne translated a Middle Ages’ work. This road certainly leads us to the very few explored issue about the relationships between the Essays and the later Scholastic. Working with an edition of Montaigne’s translation (1581) of Sebond’s Theologia, this paper presents extracts from Sebond’s nominalism that were on the root of some extracts of the Essays. KEY-WORDS: Montaigne. Nominalism. Universals. Sebonde. Fideism. RESUMO Este artigo mapeia a quase inexplorada via do nominalismo nos Ensaios. A questão correlata do ceticismo na Idade Média é também contemplada, de modo indireto. Salvo o trabalho de Compagnon (1980), poucos são os estudos que interpretam os Ensaios a partir da tradição Nominalista (William de Ockham, 1285?-1349). A maior parte dos pesquisadores não considera o fato de que Montaigne fora tradutor de uma obra da escolástica tardia. Este artigo apresenta trecho de uma edição da tradução (1581) da obra do catalão Raymond Sebond que mostra claramente a influência nominalista. Assim, esta influência, nos Ensaios, ocorrera por meio de Sebond. Portanto, não parece ser o caso de um contato direto de Montaigne com as obras de Ockham. Se o problema dos Universais aparece sob roupagem retorica nos Ensaios, seu contato com o Nominalismo ocorreu sobretudo mediante fontes indiretas (Sanches é outra fonte muito provável).
    [Show full text]
  • AFTERWORD It Should Be Manifest by Now That the Skeptieisms Of
    AFTERWORD It should be manifest by now that the skeptieisms of Montaigne and Bayle differ remarkably if one inquires into the details of their thought. This is especially true because Bayle is a philosopher interested in the technicalities of argument and proof as the essayist never had been. Is it possible to imagine Montaigne breaking his head over substantial forms? When he does allude to epistemology, he makes it quite cIear that he is a Pyrrhonist and a fideist, regarding all purely human knowledge as no stronger than the sense information on which it is founded. The fecundity of the universe makes him particularly aware of the immense variety of possibilities in a way not too dissimilar to the fJhilosophy of Heraditus. The real interest of his skeptieism, however, does not lie in his theory, but in the human reality of the observing mind as it turns from intellection to self-awareness. Bayle's philosophical point of view is mu ch more complex. His skepticism concerned totally different questions from those that had caused Montaigne's doubts, for he attacked the fortress of reason itself rather than the reliability of the senses. He also daimed that he was less a Pyrrhonist than Montaigne, and with good reason; in the long run despite the strength of skeptical arguments, arguments that he analyzed in much greater detail than the essayist, he never fully acceded to the condusions of the Pyrrhonists, primarily because he saw that other arguments, notably those of the Cartesians, seemed every bit as convineing, even more so. He could not give his un­ qualified assent to any system ofphilosophy, even the Pyrrhonists', be­ cause he regarded the truth as something too varied and too diverse to be contained by any theory.
    [Show full text]
  • JOHN CALVIN and MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE on the EYE Lee
    JOHN CALVIN AND MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE ON THE EYE Lee Palmer Wandel Son essence est incompréhensible, tellement que sa maiesté est cachée bien loin de tous nos sens, mais il a imprimé certaines marques de sa gloire en toutes ses œuvres, voires si claires et notables, que toute excuse d’ignorance est ostée aux plus rudes et hébétez du monde. John Calvin, Institution de la religion chrestienne, 1560, Book I, Chapter V.1 Aussi n’est-il pas croyable que toute cette machine n’ait quelques marques empreintes de la main de ce grand architecte, et qu’il n’y ait quelque image és choses du monde, raportant aucunement à l’ouvrier qui les a basties et formées. Michel de Montaigne, ‘Apologie de Raimond Sebond’, Essais, 1580, Book II, Chapter 12.2 1 John Calvin, Institution de la religion chrestienne, ed. Benoit J.-D. Vol. I (Paris: 1957) 68. In the editions of 1541–1557, the text differed: ‘Veu que Dieu a voulu que la fi n principale de la vie bien-heureuse fust située en la cognoissance de son nom, afi n qu’il ne semble point advis qu’il vueille forclorre a aucuns l’entrée à félicité, il se manifeste à tous clairement. Car comme ainsi soit que de nature il soit incompréhensible et caché à l’intelligence humaine, il a engravé en chacune (1541–1545: ‘en un chacun’) de ses œuvres certains signes de sa maiesté, par lesquez il se donne à cognoistre à nous selon nostre petite capacité. Ie dy signes si notoires et évidens que toute excuse d’ignorance est ostée aux plus aveugles et aux plus rudes du monde’.
    [Show full text]
  • The Essays of Michel De Montaigne, by Michel De Montaigne
    The Essays of Michel de Montaigne, by Michel de Montaigne CHAPTER 31 Of Anger lutarch is admirable throughout, but especially where he judges of human actions. What fine things does he say in the comparison of P Lycurgus and Numa upon the subject of our great folly in abandoning children to the care and government of their fathers? The most of our civil governments, as Aristotle says, “leave, after the manner of the Cyclopes, to every one the ordering of their wives and children, according to their own foolish and indiscreet fancy; and the Lacedaemonian and Cretan are almost the only governments that have committed the education of children to the laws. Who does not see that in a state all depends upon their nurture and bringing up? and yet they are left to the mercy of parents, let them be as foolish and ill-conditioned as they may, without any manner of discretion.” Amongst other things, how often have I, as I have passed along our streets, had a good mind to get up a farce, to revenge the poor boys whom I have seen hided, knocked down, and miserably beaten by some father or mother, when in their fury and mad with rage? You shall see them come out with fire and fury sparkling in their eyes: “Rabie jecur incendente, feruntur, Praecipites; ut saxa jugis abrupta, quibus mons Subtrahitur, clivoque latus pendente recedit,”1 (and according to Hippocrates, the most dangerous maladies are they that disfigure the countenance), with a roaring and terrible voice, very often against those that are but newly come from nurse, and there they are lamed and spoiled with blows, whilst our justice takes no cognisance of it, as if these maims and dislocations were not executed upon members of our commonwealth: “Gratum est, quod patria; civem populoque dedisti, 1 of 9 Si facis, ut patrix sit idoneus, utilis agris, Utilis et bellorum et pacis rebus agendis.”2 There is no passion that so much transports men from their right judgment as anger.
    [Show full text]
  • 01. Rosenwein
    Barbara H. Rosenwein, Loyola University, Chicago The Place of Renaissance Italy in the History of Emotions* The Italian Renaissance continues to hold an important place in historians’ periodization of Western history. Yet Renaissance Italy plays an oddly small role in most histories of emotion. This holds true in two ways: first, in discussions of the history of theories of emotion; and, second, in discussions that touch on the history of felt - or, at rate, expressed - emotions. This situation is, however, beginning to change. In this paper I will briefly talk about theory, spend most of my time on practice, and at the end will suggest how and why it would be good to put the two together when studying emotions in the Italian Renaissance. Theories of Emotion Histories of theories of the emotions generally spend little time on the Italian Renaissance. Two recent examples must here stand for all: the new Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Emotion jumps from medieval notions of the passions to Kant, while Dominik Perler’s treatment of theories of the emotions from 1270 to 1670 leaps over the Italian Renaissance as it spans the period from the fourteenth-century English William of Ockham to the sixteenth-century French Michel de Montaigne.1 Yet Renaissance humanists were often keenly interested in the emotions. Petrarch (d. 1374), for example, treated numerous emotions in his De secreto conflictu curarum mearum and above all in his De remediis utriusque fortune, where he borrowed from but also refocused ancient Stoic theories of the emotions.2 Francesco Filelfo (d. 1481) wrote a systematic treatise on the emotions, De morali disciplina, drawing on Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations and the Peri pathon of Pseudo-Andronicus of Rhodes.3 And between Petrarch and Filelfo was Coluccio Salutati (d.
    [Show full text]
  • Alegría Y Tristeza En El Siglo De Los Derechos”
    “Y lo repito una vez más: hemos vivido por la nosotros era varios, en total ya éramos muchos. Aquí alegría, por la alegría hemos ido al combate y hemos utilizado todo lo que nos unía, desde lo más Alegría y Tristeza en el por la alegría morimos. Que la tristeza no sea próximo a lo más lejano. Hemos distribuido hábiles unida nunca a nuestros nombres”. seudónimos para que nadie sea reconocible. ¿Por 1 Julius Fucik , “Reportaje al pie del patíbulo”. qué hemos conservado nuestros nombres? Por rutina, únicamente por rutina. Para hacernos siglo de los derechos nosotros también irreconocibles. Para hacer imperceptible, no a nosotros, sino todo lo que nos Diego García “La preparación de una tristeza necesita de hace actuar, experimentar, pensar. Y además porque Facultad de Psicología - UNR algunas alegrías”. Alejandro Dolina. es agradable hablar como todo el mundo y decir el sol FECHA DE RECEPCIÓN: 30/04/2016. FECHA DE ACEPTACIÓN: 20/05/2016. sale, cuando todos sabemos que es una manera de Cómo citar: García, D. “Alegría y tristeza en el siglo de los Derechos”. Revista Crítica Año I N.º I: 69 -79 hablar. No llegar al punto de ya no decir yo, sino a ese Introducción punto en el que ya no tiene ninguna importancia Resumen decirlo o no decirlo (Deleuze y Guattari, 2006: 9). Hacer un ensayo sobre un ensayo puede En diciembre de 1980, Gilles Deleuze se preguntaba acerca del propósito parecer acaso una tentativa irrisoria, un rizar Si entre el ensayo moderno (a lo común de un tirano (detentador de un poder), un esclavo (desprovisto demasiado el rizo.
    [Show full text]
  • The University of Western Ontario Department of Philosophy Graduate Course Outline 2018-19
    THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE COURSE OUTLINE 2018-19 Philoso 9xxxA: Survey of Early Modern Western Philosophy of Language Fall Term 2018 Benjamin Hill M 11:30-2:30 StvH 3140, StvH 1145 Mon 9:30-10:30 Wed 10:30-11:30 by appointment [email protected] Description This is a graduate level survey course. The early modern era was a time of revolutionary philosophical developments and profound conceptual changes. Among many others, it produced significant changes in Western Philosophy’s conceptions of mind and language. Indeed, the core of the contemporary Western conceptions of mind and language were formed during this era. More importantly, these changes are not unrelated. This graduate level survey course will explore what those changes were, how they emerged, and why they happened. The change was from a largely formalistic conception of language that considered language an inessential “gift from God,” reflective of human thought and by and large continuous with natural expressions and animal communication and toward a more activity-based conception of language that emphasized it was distinctly human, spontaneously emerging from human nature, constitutive of human thought and cognition, and radically non-natural. Figures to be studied will include Lorenzo Valla, Michel de Montaigne, Antoine Arnauld and PierreDraft Nicole, Geraud Cordemoy, John Locke, John Wilkins, Gottfried Leibniz, Etienne Bonnot de Condillac, Thomas Reid, Adam Smith, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried von Herder, and Wilhelm von Humboldt.
    [Show full text]
  • THE PLACE of TRUTH in MORAL DISCOURSE* by Jason Hannan
    THE PLACE OF TRUTH IN MORAL DISCOURSE* by Jason Hannan This paper examines the place of truth in moral discourse: the communicative practice of resolving differences of moral judgment. It is commonly argued that truth does not have a place in ethics and that moral disagreements can be resolved only by non-rational modes of persuasion. There are two familiar theses that lend themselves to this conclusion: moral relativism and emotivism. The first is a conceptual argument about standards, whereas the second is an empirical argument about meaning. Both enjoy considerable currency in contemporary thinking about ethics. In this paper, I question the theses of moral relativism and emotivism. I argue that truth does indeed have a place in moral discourse. By drawing on the work of philosophers Hilary Putnam and Huw Price, I argue that truth has an inescapable place in moral discourse and that a rational approach to resolving moral disagreements is therefore justified. 1. Introduction The concept of truth can elicit strikingly different responses. For those in the natural sciences, for example, the concept of truth is vital and indispensable. Belief in truth gives point and purpose to the scientific enterprise. Without it, science as a practice would cease to be meaningful. The concept of truth is therefore understandably defended by scientists and a great many philosophers of science with considerable passion and vigor. In the humanities, however, the concept of truth is often regarded with open suspicion and contempt. Truth is frequently dismissed as an antiquated metaphysical illusion, one without which our world would presumably be better off.
    [Show full text]