Michel de Montaigne and the nature of human experience

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) is still widely read today because of one reason. He wrote essays on the nature of human experience and drew conclusions of permanent value. He used numerous examples from ancient Greece and Rome, and those remain fresh and fascinating for today’s readers. What is Montaigne’s main conclusion after devoting twenty years of his life to writing essays? Did he endorse the doctrines of scepticism and relativism, or discovered universal behaviour patterns that lead to happiness? Montaigne’s key philosophical lesson is that happiness takes lots of work, but that it is worth pursuing through daily, steady activity. He acknowledged human imperfections, mistakes, and inconsistencies, but on the other hand, he praised the ancient Greek and Roman heroes for their persistent idealism. Reading Montaigne’s essays enables today’s readers to gain a crucial insight, namely, that it is worth it to pursue the good life despite setbacks, opposition and occasional defeats. This is a message that it is difficult to find elsewhere. Montaigne focused his literary explorations on the analysis of different perspectives on human experience. He took stories from different cultures and scrutinised their underlying ideas with the goal of finding happiness. His comments are sometimes wrong, but never trivial. His search for ancient Greek and Roman wisdom was indefatigable and exuberant. His retelling of historical anecdotes is not fully accurate in details, but always precise in the spirit. Montaigne is the first essayist in history who had no qualms about confessing his confusion when assessing human experience. In half of his essays, he fails to draw clear conclusions, arguing that human experience is so “shapeless and diverse that each moment plays a unique role.” He was also the first essayist in history to regard happiness as deeply subjective. After assessing hundreds of biographies, he concluded that happiness is not a cold summation of one’s wealth, health, pleasures and delights. Montaigne pointed to the strong connection between one’s happiness and the “pattern of opinions and traditions received from the environment.” It is practically impossible, he argued, to attain happiness through immorality. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/michel-de-montaigne-and-the-nature-of-human-experience/