Once You Stop Caring, the Results Come - The Philosophy of Michel de Montaigne

this video is sponsored by keeps for a special offer go to keeps.com SLP pursuit of Wonder or click the link in the description also for those interested I have a new book that just came out called the art of living in absurd existence it's a collection of essays that explore various paradoxes thought experiments and big ideas of philosophy to help you better grapple with and revel in the absurdity of life you can find the link for it in the description producing one of the most Innovative and intimate works of philosophy of all time creating an

entire new literary format that has since become essential to non-fiction and challenging conventions of belief and thought Michelle de Montaine is perhaps one of the most unique and underrated philosophers in history Montaine was born in France in 1533 born to a wealthy Merchant family his father put a heavy focus on education by just 13 years old Montaine understood Latin and had mastered the entire curriculum of the esteemed boarding school in Bordeaux the College of guen in his 20s he began working as a magistrate for the court of Peru and he would continue working for the

courts in service of the kings of France throughout his midlife during his 30s however Mon's life would begin to change as he suddenly found himself enveloped more and more by the looming Shadows of transience and mortality in 1563 when Montaine was 30 years old his best friend ien duli died likely from the plague then just a few years later his father died from a long agonizing battle with the kidney stone then in a freak accident his younger brother died after getting hit in the head with a tennis ball it was as if the universe was

making a tragic play of Mon's 30s or perhaps setting him up to take control of the second act in 1570 Montaine began to retreat from public life moving back to his family's estate which he had now inherited as if trying to finish the job around the same time Montaine would have another close encounter with death this time it was coming after him while horseback riding another Rider ran into Montaine at full speed nearly killing him if that wasn't enough not long after that his first child passed away in infancy only a couple months after being

born needless to say this concentrated period of tragedy and death changed Montaine altering his sense of what it meant to live and die causing him to confront how short and absurd life was and allowing him to realize what was important while he was still here that year he had the father following words inscribed on wooden beams in his study at the age of 38 on the last day of February his birthday Michelle De montine Long weary of the servitude of the court and of public Employments while still entire retired to the bosom of the Learned

virgins where in calm and freedom from all cares he will spend what little remains of his life now more than half run out if the fates permit he will complete this Abode this sweet ancestral Retreat and he has consecrated it to his freedom Freedom tranquility and Leisure by this point Montaine had withdrawn into almost complete Solitude locking himself in the tower of his estate with over 1500 books here he would read write and think alone after nearly a decade of this quiet and focused seclusion Montaine would emerge and with him he would bring his Masterwork

essays essays originally published in 1580 is a large collection of short essays on a wide variety of topics from sorrow to fear to education to Friendship to Solitude and nearly everything in between in these essays we find Echoes of philosophies like stoicism epicurian ISM and skepticism we also find a work of philosophy unlike anything of its time and perhaps ever what makes Mon's work so powerful and Innovative is just as much about how he wrote as what he wrote Montaine wrote with a uniquely intimate candid informal and often humorous style the 20th century scholar and

translator Donald M frame in his introduction to the complete essays of Montaine argued that Montaine wrote essays as a new means of communication in the wake of lost friends and loved ones and the reader takes the place of the Dead friend Montaine identified the objective of his writing as the complete and utterly honest exploration of The Human Condition he wrote I want you to see me as I am in a plain natural and ordinary way free of pre tense and artifice I am the one depicted here my faults and my very self are exposed for

all to see at least as much as public conventions will let me had I lived among those Nations which they say still live under the Sweet Liberty of Nature's primitive laws I assure you I would easily have painted myself quite fully and quite naked in approaching his work in this way and in arguably staying true to this aim of candid subjectivity Montaine would produce one of the most original and personal self-portraits ever made certainly from a philosophical perspective around Mon's time and largely still to this day philosophers generally regarded reason as the primary vehicle to

be used to arrive at equinity and Mastery in life Montaine disagreed Montaine believed reason was a useful tool but he did not believe the philosopher or intellectual who wielded reason in a superior fashion was any more capable of achieving states of Mastery success or Poise than anyone else in practice thousands of women in their Villages have lived more gentle more equable and more constant lives than Cicero he wrote for Montaine the mind is a feeble fallible entity rather than purely rational beings humankind is equal parts mad our life is part Folly part wisdom whoever writes

about it only reverently and according to the rules leaves out more than half of it he wrote We are simply far too arrogant about who we really are and what we are really capable of intellectuals of course often being the worst offenders of this Mon's work in a uniquely subversive way often mocks this quality of humanity more specifically the literary philosophical and academic tradition of self- bolstering and pretention Montaine was in this respect an intellectual who mocked intellectuals and arguably there is no greater mockery than mockery from within when one is capable of doing something

but instead of doing it they make fun of it the mockery cannot be attributed to jealousy or an eptitude Montaine simply saw the foolishness in intellectualism rather than the theoretical speculation of traditional philosophy and Academia as a means of philosophizing Montaine studied himself I study myself more than any other subject that is my metaphysics that is my physics he wrote in service of this philosophical approach Montaine directed A notable amount of his work at the body particularly he explored and described the often absurd conditions of the body and its implications on our lives for Montaine

the body is implicated in all our thoughts and our thoughts are often implicated in the body our thoughts formed out of the mind which is of course a part of the body are influenced by our physical feelings desires and sense perceptions moreover the prospective realities of sickness aging and death permeate these feelings and perceptions whether we are a philosopher writer ruler Shoemaker housekeeper or anyone in between we are all strained by the upper limits of our mind and we are all condemned to the temporary vessel of our bodies and the conditions therein if you sit

on the highest throne in the world you're still sitting on your ass montain wrote largely inspired by the stoics Montaine adopted the stoics principle of focusing chiefly on what one can control and disregarding what one cannot and what one can control and depend on is oneself one's own judgments of the world from within oneself not being able to govern events Montaine wrote I govern myself and apply myself to them if they will not apply themselves to me with this Montaine Embraces the inevitable messiness inherent to basing one's philosophy on self-examination that is contradiction uncertainty variance

ambiguity in a continual process of uncovering and adaptation Montaine wrote I may presently change not only by chance but also by intention it is a record of diverse and changeable events or undecided and when the occasion arises contradictory ideas whether it be that I am another self or that I grasp a subject in different circumstances and see it from a different point of view so it may be that I contradict myself but as deade said the truth I never contradict for Montaine truth in terms of Humanity's comprehension of Truth differs with different environments cultures times

in history perspectives and so on because of this he critiqued the upholding and trusting of popular opinions instead he embraced a form of skeptical empiricism which broadly means that he prioritized sense perception over reasoning as a means toward knowledge but still viewed both as tools and both as fallible tools thus all our understandings are merely hypothetical temporary and subject to scrutiny Mon's motto was famously what do I know philosophy then for Montaine is not about finding absolute truth but about uncovering free in and expressing the self it is the practice of free judgment from within

the self it is an art The Art of Living this art like all art is a process a continuation of trying new ideas perspectives and modes of being fittingly and of course intentionally the title of his Masterwork essays means in French to experiment or to try Montaine died on September 13th 1592 at age 59 he continued working on essays up until his death changing and adding to it keeping the mirror that was his life's work steadily aimed at his life poignantly Montaine died of a disease known as quinzy which often causes paralysis of the tongue

before passing this disease took Mon's ability to speak fortunately however unlike most individuals past and present Montaine spent his life speaking bluntly and boldly exploring and expressing the unique inner workings of his being before it was too late he strived for and shared the truth of himself which is perhaps all that we really have and all that truth might ever be as Montaine put it to philosophize is to learn how to die and arguably that's what he did he learned how to die and then lived in that light after his death his work influenced many

seminal philosophers and writers to come like Renee Dart Jean jaac rouso bla Pascal friederick nche Ralph Aldo Emerson Shakespeare and countless more he is considered by many to be the founder of modern skepticism and one of the world's first truly tolerant open minds his writing gave way to the format that now permeates education and non-fiction the essay Mon's existence forged the path for this very piece of writing this essay about his life to exist ultimately it is not necessarily that Montaine said something profound but that he embraced and expressed simple ordinary things in an Innovative

and profound way and that arguably is the task for us all again for those who enjoy exploring ideas of philosophy and how we can better deal with and Endeavor on our own absurd journey in life I think you really enjoy my new book of collected works it's an essay collection one of my favorite formats which is fundamentally inspired and made possible by the first essay collection Mon's essays it's out now and the link for it is in the description there are of course no photos of Montaine but there are portraits painted of him though perhaps

he may not have minded at the time these portraits show that like up to 85% of men he lost some amount of his hair in his lifetime it's only right that motan gets a little roasted as well for those of us who want to keep our hair in this era of history and thanks to this video sponsor keeps we can our portraits don't need to contain thinning hair if we don't want them to keeps is an online subscription service that provides FDA approved treatments that can help prevent hair loss and promote hair growth as well

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