The Political Philosophy of Montaigne PDF Download

Author: David Lewis Schaefer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
This provocative book provides a comprehensive interpretation of Montaigne's Essays as a work of political philosophy. David Lewis Schaefer diverges from the prevailing view, which prizes the Essays as an example of authentic literary self-portrayal but holds that the book is not a coherent philosophical work. Arguing for Montaigne's significance as one of the philosophic architects of the intellectual revolution that generated the distinctive characteristics of modernity, Schaefer demonstrates the extent to which Montaigne was a systematic, radical, and political thinker. For the 2018 second printing, the author has included a list of his most important publications on Montaigne since this book's original publication.

Author: Charlotte C. S. Thomas
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780881464856
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Michel de Montaigne begins his magisterial The Essais by telling his readers that he, himself, is the matter of his book. He says that he has written himself so that after death he could remain in the world with chose who knew and loved him. Montaigne's intimate project, meant to be read by friends, has emerged as one of the most surprising and compelling accounts of the human condition ever written. Although Montaigne famously retired from public life to write, neither his concerns nor the activities recounted in The Essais is purely private. Montaigne is engaged in his world as a philosopher, but also as a citizen, gentleman, and friend; so, his wisdom turns outward as well as inward. This volume of essays, based on papers presented at The A.V. Elliott Conference for Great Books and Ideas sponsored by Mercer University's McDonald Center for America's Founding Principles, focuses on the outward oriented political philosophy of Montaigne, which is informed by his probing introspection and thoroughly unsentimental self-observation. Contributors include Ann Hartle, Daniel Cullen, Christine Henderson, Eduardo Velasquez, Kevin Honeycutt, and Christopher Edelman. Book jacket.

Author: Biancamaria Fontana
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400824516
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Michel de Montaigne (1533-92) is principally known today as a literary figure--the inventor of the modern essay and the pioneer of autobiographical self-exploration who retired from politics in midlife to write his private, philosophical, and apolitical Essais. But, as Biancamaria Fontana argues in Montaigne's Politics, a novel, vivid account of the political meaning of the Essais in the context of Montaigne's life and times, his retirement from the Bordeaux parliament in 1570 "could be said to have marked the beginning, rather than the end, of his public career." He later served as mayor of Bordeaux and advisor to King Henry of Navarre, and, as Fontana argues, Montaigne's Essais very much reflect his ongoing involvement and preoccupation with contemporary politics--particularly the politics of France's civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. Fontana shows that the Essais, although written as a record of Montaigne's personal experiences, do nothing less than set forth the first major critique of France's ancien régime, anticipating the main themes of Enlightenment writers such as Voltaire and Diderot. Challenging the views that Montaigne was politically aloof or evasive, or that he was a conservative skeptic and supporter of absolute monarchy, Fontana explores many of the central political issues in Montaigne's work--the reform of legal institutions, the prospects of religious toleration, the role of public opinion, and the legitimacy of political regimes.

Author: Philippe Desan
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691183007
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 832

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Book Description
A definitive biography of the great French essayist and thinker One of the most important writers and thinkers of the Renaissance, Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) helped invent a literary genre that seemed more modern than anything that had come before. But did he do it, as he suggests in his Essays, by retreating to his chateau and stoically detaching himself from his violent times? Philippe Desan overturns this long standing myth by showing that Montaigne was constantly connected to and concerned with realizing his political ambitions—and that the literary and philosophical character of the Essays largely depends on them. Desan shows how Montaigne conceived of each edition of the Essays as an indispensable prerequisite to the next stage of his public career. It was only after his political failure that Montaigne took refuge in literature, and even then it was his political experience that enabled him to find the right tone for his genre. The most comprehensive and authoritative biography of Montaigne yet written, this sweeping narrative offers a fascinating new picture of his life and work.

Author: Ann Hartle
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 113944204X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Michel de Montaigne, the inventor of the essay, has always been acknowledged as a great literary figure but has never been thought of as a philosophical original. This book treats Montaigne as a serious thinker in his own right, taking as its point of departure Montaigne's description of himself as 'an unpremeditated and accidental philosopher'. Whereas previous commentators have treated Montaigne's Essays as embodying a scepticism harking back to classical sources, Ann Hartle offers an account that reveals Montaigne's thought to be dialectical, transforming sceptical doubt into wonder at the most familiar aspects of life. This major reassessment of a much admired but also much underestimated thinker will interest a wide range of historians of philosophy as well as scholars in comparative literature, French studies and the history of ideas.

Author: Pierre Manent
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268107831
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
In Montaigne: Life without Law, originally published in French in 2014 and now translated for the first time into English by Paul Seaton, Pierre Manent provides a careful reading of Montaigne’s three-volume work Essays. Although Montaigne’s writings resist easy analysis, Manent finds in them a subtle unity, and demonstrates the philosophical depth of Montaigne’s reflections and the distinctive, even radical, character of his central ideas. To show Montaigne’s unique contribution to modern philosophy, Manent compares his work to other modern thinkers, including Machiavelli, Hobbes, Pascal, and Rousseau. What does human life look like without the imposing presence of the state? asks Manent. In raising this question about Montaigne’s Essays, Manent poses a question of great relevance to our contemporary situation. He argues that Montaigne’s philosophical reflections focused on what he famously called la condition humaine, the human condition. Manent tracks Montaigne’s development of this fundamental concept, focusing especially on his reworking of pagan and Christian understandings of virtue and pleasure, disputation and death. Bringing new form and content together, a new form of thinking and living is presented by Montaigne’s Essays, a new model of a thoughtful life from one of the unsung founders of modernity. Throughout, Manent suggests alternatives and criticisms, some by way of contrasts with other thinkers, some in his own name. This is philosophical engagement at a very high level. In showing the unity of Montaigne’s work, Manent’s study will appeal especially to students and scholars of political theory, the history of modern philosophy, modern literature, and the origins of modernity.

Author: Philippe Desan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019021533X
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 841

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Book Description
"The creator of the 'essay,' Michel de Montaigne serves as a bridge between what we call the early modern and modernity. The Essays resemble a patchwork of personal reflections that tend toward a single goal: to live better in the present and to prepare for death. Montaigne constantly redefines the nature of his task in order to fashion himself anew and, in the end, offers an impressionistic model of descriptions based on momentary experiences. Over the centuries, the reception of Montaigne has been anything but simple. The institutionalization of an author depends on what one might call his or her 'ideological and historical trajectory.' An effect of 'globalization' has even reached Montaigne in recent years, bringing him sudden, worldwide visibility. His thought has become internationalized, and he is read, studied, and commented in most European countries as well as in North America, Latin America, and Asia"

Author: Leen Spruit
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004098831
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
The main purpose of this book is to offer a comprehensive historical analysis of the discussions on a crucial problem for the Medieval theory of knowledge: the formal mediation of sensible reality in intellectual knowledge.

Author: Ann Hartle
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 9780810129658
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Montaigne’s Essays are rightfully studied as giving birth to the literary form of that name. Ann Hartle’s Montaigne and the Origins of Modern Philosophy argues that the essay is actually the perfect expression of Montaigne as what he called "a new figure: an unpremeditated and accidental philosopher." Unpremeditated philosophy is philosophy made sociable—brought down from the heavens to the street, where it might be engaged in by a wider audience. In the same philosophical act, Montaigne both transforms philosophy and invents "society," a distinctly modern form of association. Through this transformation, a new, modern character emerges: the individual, who is neither master nor slave and who possesses the new virtues of integrity and generosity. In Montaigne’s radically new philosophical project, Hartle finds intimations of both modern epistemology and modern political philosophy.

Author: Ullrich Langer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139826905
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592), the great Renaissance skeptic and pioneer of the essay form, is known for his innovative method of philosophical inquiry which mixes the anecdotal and the personal with serious critiques of human knowledge, politics and the law. He is the first European writer to be intensely interested in the representations of his own intimate life, including not just his reflections and emotions but also the state of his body. His rejection of fanaticism and cruelty and his admiration for the civilizations of the New World mark him out as a predecessor of modern notions of tolerance and acceptance of otherness. In this volume an international team of contributors explores the range of his philosophy and also examines the social and intellectual contexts in which his thought was expressed.