Regan: What need one?
Lear: Oh, reason not the need! Our baset beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous.
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man’s life is cheap as beast’s.
King Lear, Act 2, Scene 4, William Shakespeare
Why should we read Montaigne? Well, why are you in this class or looking up philosophers? If it is not to find some pleasure in learning about and reading the works of these philosophers or merely to improve yourself, you should probably just drop out of college now or stop the search. Since you’re still reading, I’ll assume you didn’t text your parents and email the registrar you’re leaving. I could argue that Montaigne had an incalculable influence on all kinds of Western thinkers and philosophers that continues today. I could say that without Montaigne, Descartes may have never written The Meditations, or it at least would not have appeared in any form that we recognize today; or that one of Shakespeare’s many creations or characters may be missing without him. One could also argue that he was the father of the modern essay, crafting an almost entirely new and unprecedented way of expressing the human condition. All this is fine, but I think we should read him for those reasons I hope you’re in this class and seeking higher education in general—his writing is immensely pleasurable to read; the prose is like nothing else from the Early Modern period or even after; his works has a timeless sensation that almost feels dangerously seductive; and as he would want, it makes us think deeper about who we are and why we actually think and act the way we do. Montaigne’s greatest, and really his only, philosophic, physical, or metaphysical system was his own mind, and by diving into his mind, it becomes a template for journeying into our own. The Essays are, simply. a means of augmenting our lives in a way only deep reading and appreciation of great works can.
Enjoy what you study. Know yourself first and above all other things. Read Montaigne.
(Plus, I’ve seen how some philosophers write, and we could all use a lesson from Montaigne).
“Greatness of soul consists not so much in striving upwards and forwards as in knowing how to find one’s place and to draw the line. Whatever is adequate it regards as ample; it shows its sublime quality by preferring the moderate to the outstanding. Nothing is so beautiful, so right, as acting as a man [or any virtuous person] should: nor is any learning so ardous as knowing how to live this life naturally and well. And the most uncouth of our affections is to despise our being.”
Michel de Montaigne, “Of Experience” 3:13:1261