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Channel: Montaigne – Quantum Est In Rebus Inane
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Reading “RM” 8: Skepticism

In Bk III, Montaigne’s skepticism is not something he has, an acquisition; it is something that he is, a state of being.  Call it, if you will, a nisus (in F. R. Leavis’ sense of that term), a...

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Reading “RM” 9: Skepticism and Christianity

One of the most remarkable paragraphs in Merleau-Ponty’s essay on Montaigne is this, the final paragraph in the section on Montaigne’s religion, his Christianity. What he retains of Christianity is the...

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Our Sickly, Kill-joy Mind…

Xerxes was a fool, who, wrapped in all human pleasures, went and offered a prize to anyone who would find him others.  But hardly less of a fool is the man who cuts off those that nature has found for...

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Reading “RM” 11: “The Grace of Our First Certainties”

Now to address the final section of Merleau-Ponty’s “Reading Montaigne”.  The section winds together the earlier sections, attempting to describe the conditions and motives for Montaigne’s “return to...

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Some Underdeveloped Thoughts on Montaigne’s Style

What should be said about the way Montaigne writes?  He writes essays–as he says, if his mind could gain a firm footing, he would not make essays, he would make decisions, but his mind is always in...

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Emerson Finds Montaigne

…[S]ince the personal regard which I entertain for Montaigne my be unduly great, I will, under the shield of the prince of egotists, offer, as an apology for electing him as the representative of...

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Emerson on Montaigne 1

Here is one of the great passages in Emerson’s essay on Montaigne: Let us have a robust manly life, let us know what we know for certain.  What we have, let it be solid, and seasonable, and our own.  A...

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Emerson on Montaigne, a New Start

Last year, around this time, I was writing here about Emerson’s essay on Montaigne.  I got distracted from that and moved on to other things.  But I am going to get back to it now.  Look for more posts...

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Letter to a Philosophical Inquirer

As I suppose most philosophers do, I get fairly common requests from folks who are fascinated by philosophy asking for reading lists and advice. I thought I would share my latest response to such a...

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