Michel de Montaigne and the art of introspection

Despite his practice of recounting anecdotes about himself, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) failed to learn much from introspection. In fact, he often misunderstood his own motives or drew the wrong lessons. I attribute Montaigne’s constant references to introspection to self-aggrandisement, not to philosophical wisdom. He spent twenty years writing his essays, and many of those, include an anecdote about Montaigne’s personal life. However, Montaigne almost never draws a clear conclusion from those anecdotes. He tells us “this happened to me,” but then rambles about possible interpretations. He goes into one direction, but then reverses course, leaving readers in the dark about the point he was trying to make. In his essay “On practice,” Montaigne declared that he was studying himself more than he was studying any other person or subject. I must, however, clarify that, when he says “studying myself,” he mostly means “studying my own emotions.” Why do I think that Montaigne was rather ineffective at introspection? Because, during the two decades he devoted to writing, he didn’t improve his lifestyle in any meaningful way. Take for instance his essay “On repentance.” Montaigne is telling us that he is turning his gaze inward and keeping busy with introspection. “While everybody else is looking ahead, I prefer to look inside myself,” he writes. Fair enough, but what lessons does Montaigne draw from his introspection? Most of the time, none; and occasionally, an insignificant recommendation that he’ll fail to put into practice anyway. I’m not exaggerating in the least. Introspection is a tool, not a pastime for unemployed souls. It is a method for identifying our own fears and motives, not for bragging about how clever we are. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/michel-de-montaigne-and-the-art-of-introspection/