Michel de Montaigne, Essays - On Sadness - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the Renaissance-era philosopher, critic, and essayist Michel De Montaigne's work Essays, specifically his essay "On Sadness" (De la Tristesse), where Montaigne begins by noting that he does not like or value this emotion, but is also not often subject to it either. By contrast, it seems that many people in the world do value it and even associate it with wisdom, virtue, and conscience. Montaigne discusses several stories about people who at first do not express their sadness at a great loss befalling their family, but then do so with people they presumedly are less close to, and examines two explanations given for this. One is that the person hits a sort of saturation point with their capacity to deal with the emotion, and then they give way to tears and sadness. The other is that some losses are too great to even be expressed at the time. He also discusses several other emotions that can strongly affect us, in particular erotic love, joy, and shame. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler You can find Montaigne's Essays here - https://amzn.to/4l3iKfH