Montaigne on the art of judgment: the trial of Montaigne

Abstract

C’est grand cas que les choses en soyent la en nostre siecle, que la philosophie, ce soit, jusques aux gens d’entendement, un nom vainet fantastique, qui se treuve de nul usage et de nul pris, (c) et paropinion et par effect. Michel de Montaigne The essay is by now an established literary form, despite the salacious content sometimes given to it by its inventor. In fact we are hard-pressed to find any essayist as embarassingly personal as Montaigne. But if we make our way back to his original work, quite a different light is shed. For to him, of course essayerwas not “to write a work of literature” but “to try or to test” something. Montaigne tried and tested things as a judge in Bordeaux. Trials, formal andinformal, were familiar to him. Readers of Montaigne are familiar with his notion of “a word in a corner”, an oblique or indirect approach to inquiry.Perhaps the word ‘apologie’ in the title of his EssaisII/12 on Raimond Sebonde and Sextus Empiricus is such an oblique hint, and like the “Apologia” ofSocrates, may be interpreted as a trial. Clearly it is not a plain “defense” ofSebonde’s 1487 Natural Theology, since it demolishes every genus and species of argument found in that work. But that is not to say that the “Apologie” is therefore ironic to the point of sarcasm and ridicule. Rather, I suspect that we have textual and autobiographical evidence to say that it is in truth a trial, taking place in Montaigne’s life and thought, With Sebonde as defendant accused of dogmatism and Sextus Empiricus’ Pyrrho the plaintiff.