Montaigne: La vie sans loi

by Pierre Manent

In Montaigne: Life without Law, originally published in French in 2014 and now translated for the first time into English by Paul Seaton, Pierre Manent provides a careful reading of Montaigne's three-volume work Essays. Although Montaigne's writings resist easy analysis, Manent finds in them a subtle unity, and demonstrates the philosophical depth of Montaigne's reflections and the distinctive, even radical, character of his central ideas. To show Montaigne's unique contribution to modern philosophy, Manent compares his work to other modern thinkers, including Machiavelli, Hobbes, Pascal, and Rousseau. What does human life look like without the imposing presence of the state? asks Manent. In raising this question about Montaigne's Essays, Manent poses a question of great relevance to our contemporary situation. He argues that Montaigne's philosophical reflections focused on what he famously called la condition humaine, the human condition. Manent tracks Montaigne's development of this fundamental concept, focusing especially on his reworking of pagan and Christian understandings of virtue and pleasure, disputation and death. Bringing new form and content together, a new form of thinking and living is presented by Montaigne's Essays, a new model of a thoughtful life from one of the unsung founders of modernity.

Throughout, Manent suggests alternatives and criticisms, some by way of contrasts with other thinkers, some in his own name. This is philosophical engagement at a very high level. In showing the unity of Montaigne's work, Manent's study will appeal especially to students and scholars of political theory, the history of modern philosophy, modern literature, and the origins of modernity.

368 pages, Paperback

Published January 20, 2021

About the author

Pierre Manent est directeur d' etudes a l' Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales, membre fondateur de la revue Commentaire.

Reviews

[Molsa Roja(s) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finalment diria que ha estat una molt bona guia a Montaigne. El cert és que comença fluix, pesant, feixuc, tediós, extraient no sols idees força banals de Montaigne, sinó desenvolupant-les també d’una manera simple, des-interessant. Però la cosa s’anima a través d’un Montaigne que a mesura que passen les pàgines dels seus Assajos deixa parcialment de banda els seus encoratjaments escèptics a obeir i, prenent una actitud ambivalent, posarà en dubte la validesa de l’imperi de la raó respecte l’animalitat, l’efectivitat i realitat del qualificatiu “bàrbar” o “salvatge” que s’imposa als pobles americans, l’aparent omnipotència de l’ànima com autodeterminant, la validesa del cristianisme com a religió i l’ús instrumental en general del sentiment religiós… Molt interessant. Ganes de llegir-ne un altre.