Biography of Michel de Montaigne

In the light of skepticism

23 February 1533
13 September 1592
Traveler and moralist precursor of "philosopher" of enlightenment, Michel de Montaigne was born on 23 February 1533 in the Chateau of Montaigne in Périgord in France. Educated by his father in a completely free and free from unnecessary constraints, he learned Latin as a mother tongue by a Preceptor who knew no French. He then studied law and became a Counsellor in the parlement of Bordeaux (1557). His first literary work was the translation of a work by Catalan theologian Raimondo di Sabunda (died in Toulouse in 1436), which is the famous "book of creatures or natural theology", a text of apologetics that tried to prove, rather than with the support of sacred texts or religious doctors of the Church, the truth of the Catholic faith through study of the creatures and man.
In 1571 he retired to his Château to devote himself to his studies. The first fruits of his labor, still collected in the vast collection of essays, are mere collections of facts or decisions, taken from different ancient and modern writers, in which he still pops up the personality of the author. But later this same personality starts to become the true Center of meditation of Montaigne, which takes on the character of a for expression, unare "painting of the ego". In 1580 he published the first two books of those who became the famous "wise men", which came out a first edition in two books in 1580. In the following years he continued to revise and expand the work until de11588, in three books.
Death prevented him instead to complete the revision of this latest edition. Also in ' 71, however, Montaigne left France and traveled to Switzerland, in Germany and in Italy where, in Rome, overwintered 1580-1581. Appointed mayor of Bordeaux, returned home, but the care of the charge did not prevent him to wait to study and meditation. Montaigne waited as told a new edition of his work with additional enrichment when he died at his castle on 13 September 1592. "The reflection of Montaigne ranks at a time of upheaval in European culture and history, and he is witness par excellence of the crisis of values and the system of scientific and philosophical knowledge experienced in Europe in the second half of the 16th century: on the one hand, the fall of geocentrism, criticism of the principles of Aristotle, medical innovations demonstrated the provisional nature of all human sciences acquisition; on the other hand, the discovery of the American continent required reflection on moral values until then judged eternal and unchanging for all people.
The upheaval of the cultural horizon convinces Montaigne that change is not a temporary condition which can happen a definitive settlement of the human world: changeability is revealed in fact typical expression of the human condition, unable to reach definitive certainties and truth; Hence montaignano skepticism, criticism originates to reason stoica who, confident in its ability to be the vehicle of human liberation, not aware of being in turn determined by habits, geographical and historical influences "[Enciclopedia Garzanti di Filosofia]. His favorite philosophers were Seneca, for his stoicism and rationality, Cato for refusing to tyranny, and Plutarch for its ethical depths. Fundamentals were skeptics: note, in fact, is his preference to the rational against the passions that drive will often to fanaticism. Him Nietzsche will say, "that such a man wrote it, has heightened our pleasure to live on this earth".
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.