Michel de Montaigne’s key lesson about human nature

For twenty years, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) wrote incessantly about human nature. He did extensive research and addressed a myriad of individual and societal issues. What is the main lesson that he drew from his philosophical studies? Montaigne presented this lesson in his essay “On pedantry,” but I must first explain what he meant by “pedantry.” In the sixteenth century, the word “pedantry” had a wider meaning. It denoted people who focus on elaborate, rigid, irrelevant details but have little understanding of the underlying principles. Nowadays, we still use the word “pedant” to refer to people who focus on elaborate, rigid, irrelevant details. Those people have a high opinion of themselves and show off by making ridiculous, unnecessary complicated statements. However, in our century, the second part of Montaigne’s definition has been lost. Montaigne defined pedants not only for their focus on irrelevant details, but also for their lack of common sense. Pedants have no general understanding, no common sense, because they are unable to think in terms of principles. Their minds can only apprehend isolated, mostly irrelevant details. In Montaigne’s words, “pedants lack practical wisdom” in spite of their education, background, or social status. They can memorise and parrot other people’s words, but cannot assess facts independently and draw their own conclusions. The key lesson conveyed by Montaigne in this essay is that self-reliant, effective, happy individuals are the opposite of pedants. Instead of focusing on irrelevant details, they identify the driving factors. Instead of parroting some else’s words, they want to figure things out. To illustrate his point, Montaigne compared Aristotle (384-322 BC) to his disciple and friend Theophrastus (371-287 BC) in their approach to learning. While Aristotle sought to identify the essential principles of metaphysics, epistemology and ethics, Theophrastus devoted himself to writing a treatise about botany. While Aristotle gave advice on finding happiness, Theophrastus compiled endless details about plant morphology. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/michel-de-montaignes-key-lesson-about-human-nature/