4 Life Lessons From the Most Underrated Philosopher You Are Not Reading
Michele de Montaigne (1533-1592) was a French Renaissance philosopher, writer and statesman. He is best known for his Essays, a collection of personal reflections on a wide range of topics, including morality, education, religion and politics. Montaigne's Essays are considered a landmark in the development of the modern essay form.
This is, I guess, what an introduction to Montaigne is supposed to look like.
But I would start by saying that Montaigne is one of the most underrated thinkers of all time.
It would be easy to say how that’s not true, as Montaigne always was, and still is, appreciated by the lovers of philosophy.
What I mean when I say that he is underrated is that he never gained popularity amongst the general public, like some other thinkers.
More specifically, he never gained popularity despite the thing he has in common with those who are read by the general public: he doesn’t do philosophy for the sake of philosophy, he rather asks how one should live this life.
That’s why what I want to share with you this time are not necessarily some revolutionary ideas that you’ve never heard of before. They are things that we should all keep learning throughout our lives, just like Montaigne did. And we can use his writing as a reminder to do so.
Stay humble and don’t take yourself too seriously
Montaigne’s work is noted for his witty moments of self-awareness and his self-deprecating humor.
This quality that is so rare in great thinkers can be seen at the very beginning of “Essays,” when he says:
"I am myself the matter of my book; you would be unreasonable to spend your leisure on so frivolous and vain a subject."
In Montaigne you won’t find a thinker who is claiming that he was able to grasp The Truth and is now teaching it. You will find a man who forever remained a student of life.
"I am not so much concerned with the fact that I am ignorant of many things, as with the fact that I am so ready to accept my ignorance as knowledge."
Never stop learning how to live
As mentioned in the previous point, Montaigne was a student of life.
Before it became a practice of mental masturbation (pardon my language), philosophy was the art of learning how to live. Montaigne is one of the finest examples of those who took philosophy for what it was initially intended.
As he said, there is
“nothing so fine as to play this (human) role well and fittingly", and that there is "nothing so difficult to learn as how to live this life well and naturally."
Montaigne, who was a nobleman and had experienced what it’s like to have two things most people desire - material wealth and social status - recognized that meaning of life lies elsewhere.
“…our great and glorious masterpiece is to live properly. All other things - to reign, to lay up treasure, to build - are at best but little aids and additions.”
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