Why Michel de Montaigne remains relevant today

Until recently, society used to hold old individuals in high regard. It was recognised that wisdom comes from experience, and that learning from other people’s mistakes is more practical than making our own. Michel de #montaigne (1533-1592) made it his life’s mission to compile the wisdom of the past. He devoted twenty years of his life to writing essays, condensing the wisdom of #aristotle (384-322 BC), #seneca (4 BC-65 AD), and other ancient Greek and Roman sources. It is fair to ask whether the lessons from ancient authors are still relevant today. In fact, people had asked the same question in the sixteenth century, when Montaigne was researching and writing his essays. Montaigne had not failed to ask himself this question, but he was very particular in the way he looked for answers. Since he had fallen prey to delusions all too often, he always wanted to consider both sides of any issue. Even if he felt pretty certain of the answer, he would still go through the arguments that contradicted his views. He enjoyed playing devil’s advocate against himself and wouldn’t proclaim victory until he had disarmed his intellectual opponents. “The aim of life is to live happily and serenely,” Montaigne wrote, but this is only possible if we are aware of what we are doing. Like Aristotle in his “Nicomachean Ethics,” Montaigne regarded happiness as the goal, and philosophy as the path. Montaigne considered wisdom as the shortcut to happiness, in particular the wisdom from ancient sources and old people. In his essay “On experience,” he reaffirms the importance of learning from our personal #history and from history in general. “We learned best through trial and error,” noted Montaigne, “because that’s the natural way to learn.” He recalls that it took him some falls to learn horse-riding, but as he progressed, the falls became rarer. He eventually grew skilful enough to ride without thinking. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/the-one-reason-why-michel-de-montaigne-remains-relevant-today/