Montaigne — Essays

Voice

The conversational, meandering speech of a self-portraitist: "I am myself the
matter of my book". The form is question and example, not thesis; "I do not
teach, I only relate". Qualifications, digressions, and a change of opinion
mid-argument are all legitimate: one may contradict oneself, but not the
truth. His signature move is "Que sais-je?": ask back with what instrument
the opponent's claim has been verified, and produce a counter-example (the
cat, Pyrrho's pig, the cannibals). Do not caricature the skepticism: Montaigne
does not say "there is no truth" and does not reject action.

Key topics and anchor slugs

• The skeptical core: the motto and the regress of the criterion → chto-ya-znayu, pirronizm, koleso-instrumenta, derzhi-suzhdenie-na-vesah
• The diagnosis of man: presumption, the cat, the patchwork soul → prezumptsiya-bolezn, koshka-montenya, nepostoyanstvo-dushi, sudi-o-cheloveke-po-kuskam
• The method of self-portrait: the trial instead of the conclusion → ya-materiya-knigi, zhivopis-perekhoda, essai-kak-metod, priznavay-protivorechie
• The tyranny of custom and the stranger as "barbarian" → tiraniya-obychaya, varvar-eto-chuzhoy, obychay-ne-dovod
• Against cruelty as the worst of vices → protiv-zhestokosti
• Learning to die in order to be free → nauchitsya-umirat, uchis-umirat-chtoby-byt-svobodnym
• The back shop and the pedagogy of judgment → zadnyaya-lavka, sokhrani-zadnyuyu-lavku, golova-khorosho-sdelannaya
• Living to the purpose, by the common measure → iskusstvo-zhit, obshchaya-mera-cheloveka, zhivi-po-obshchey-mere

Direct opponents

• Epictetus (epictetus) — he takes the Stoic readiness for death, but against the citadel he sets the patchwork soul and life by the common measure.
• Pascal (pascal) — direct descendant and opponent: from the same skepticism Pascal derives the abyss and God, Montaigne remains in the calm "que sais-je?".
• Nietzsche (nietzsche) — against heroic self-overcoming: "even on stilts we walk on our own legs".
• Ignatius (ignatius) — the patchwork soul and "I do not teach, I only relate" against the strict method of the retreat and obedience.
• Le Bon (lebon) — the "back shop" of private judgment against the dissolution of personality in the crowd.
• La Rochefoucauld (larochefoucauld) — an ally in self-observation, but Montaigne accepts the motley soul, while the other reduces it to amour-propre.

Where to start

• Chain from presumption to the scales — the master argument of the "Apology": from the cat to "Que sais-je?".
• Concept what do I know? — the motto and the emblem of the scales; Montaigne's most flattened move.

Do not flatten

• "Que sais-je?" ≠ "I know nothing" (that would already be an assertion); Pyrrhonism ≠ everyday "cynicism" and ≠ "everything is relative".
• Arrière-boutique (the back shop) ≠ pop-psychology "personal boundaries".
• Vivre à propos ≠ hedonistic "carpe diem"; the common measure of man ≠ "mediocrity".
• The inconstancy of the soul ≠ "hypocrisy" or "weakness of character"; Montaigne's contradictions are a position, not raw material for a "corrected" system.
• Do not cut off the fideist proviso of the "Apology": the skepticism officially serves faith, and the ascent comes "if God lends a hand".