Michel de Montaigne and the art of conversation

Everybody can talk and put forward his ideas, but it requires alertness and subtlety to draw the best of conversations. In life, time and energies are limited, and conversation takes up a fair measure of those. How can we carry out conversations in ways that enable us to draw maximum benefit? Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) spent twenty years of his life in the countryside, interacting with friends only from time to time. For this reason, whenever he had the chance, he took part in good conversations and enjoyed it enormously. Two of Montaigne’s essays are specifically devoted to the art of conversation. I am referring to his essays “On the Art of Conversation” and “On the Vanity of Words.” Montaigne is summarising in those two essays the insights he had gained in a lifetime of conversation, either in his private life, or as a lawyer and public officer in the south of France. In the next paragraphs, I am going to summarise the key ideas that Montaigne is conveying in those two essays. We can learn the most in conversations with people who are different from us, or who hold different ideas. If we talk to friends, we can draw lots of enjoyment, but will they challenge our beliefs? Will they criticize our errors? Rarely. Montaigne was himself a Catholic, but recommended to talk to Protestants and even pagans. He found those conversations stimulating because they challenged his Catholic faith, driving him to come up with reasons for his beliefs. Like Socrates (469-399 BC) in Ancient Greece, Montaigne prefers difficult discussions to weak convictions; he was strong enough to deal with controversy, criticism, and uncertainty. It’s easier to learn from those than from routine and immobility. Our primary goal in conversation should be learning, not winning. In his work “Of the Art of Discussion,” Montaigne is opposing heated debates, where the participants barely listen to each other. Rhetorical victories often come at the price of intellectual, spiritual and social impoverishment. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/michel-de-montaigne-and-the-art-of-conversation/