#may very well write my undergrad thesis on montaigne

[sweetbitterpdf]

thoughts on... your fav area of philosophy?

( ask me abt my thoughts on things !! )

this is both a wonderful and deeply difficult question!! my philosophical education has made me a bit of a jack of all trades when it comes to (continental) philosophy, but i haven’t had a chance to get like… super into one singular area/school of thought! maybe rather than my favourite area i can talk about my favourite philosopher instead!

my all-time fave so far— if he can even be considered a philosopher, that’s an area of debate— is michel de montaigne!! he’s the inventor of the essay, which a lot of people tend to think is something that has always existed, but it hasn’t! as his name suggests he was french, and he wrote his essays— his big, significant work— in the late 16th century. 

when you think of an essay you may think of word-vomiting on a page for the sake of a grade, but his essays— essais in french— were exactly what the name suggests: attempts. in his case, they were attempts to understand various things about the world around him, from things like war and glory, to the imagination, to class dynamics, to smells. he even has an essay on thumbs (which is about a page in length, and is one of my favourites!)

i like him so much for a variety of reasons, but the main ones are:

he was genuinely just a super nice dude. he was quite humble when it came to talking about himself— i don’t remember where exactly, but in one of his essays he goes on for a whole paragraph about the fact that he’s not particularly tall or handsome, he can’t swim all that well, can’t shoot a gun, etc. he was also elected mayor of his french hometown… while he was away in italy?? and he served his term so well and he was so liked by everyone that he was elected for another term after that!

he came to some very modern conclusions about various things. for example— and again, keep in mind that he was writing in the 1570s and 1580s— the notion that women are a lot more similar to men than everyone seems to think, and it’s unfair that they’re treated so differently. he also said— and i quote— “we love a body without soul and sentiment when we love a body without its consent”!!! in the 16th century!!!!

the reason why whether he’s a philosopher or not is heavily debated is because his work centers solely on himself. his big question— rather than ‘is there a god’ or ‘what is the meaning of life’ like so many other philosophers— was que sçay-je? which, translated from the middle french in which he wrote, means what do i know? that was the aim of his 900-page-long essays (the length of all of them collectively). that’s why he covers such a wide range of topics! something would come to mind, and he would write down his thoughts and knowledge to figure out precisely what he knows and what he doesn’t.

because of the previous point, his work is not only deeply fascinated in tone, but also wonderfully personal. when i took a class on montaigne and read the majority of his essays i got the feeling of a well-loved, eccentric old uncle telling you some stories in a cozy old armchair. so much of philosophy is told at you, this is the way things are or that is the way things must be, etc. but montaigne converses with you. he tells you his thoughts through stories, both from others and from his own life. he doesn’t prescribe, as so many other philosophers do— all he’s trying to do is sort through the clutter of his own mind, and the reader is along for the ride.