In Montaigne’s Essays, Montaigne describes a variety of fears by narrating different stories. Fear is a surrendering emotion that can make people not only acting frantic but also fettering from moving. However, by comparing it to other emotion, it is the most powerful one. When fear throws us into despair, where we have nothing to lose, it makes us strong again. If we’re not afraid of fear, overcoming fear, then we could calmly deal with everything.
3 thoughts on “Montaigne’s Essays – Fear”
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Fear is important in Montaigne’s Essays. Montaignes does a great job of analyzing and using fear in a unique way because he is one of the first philosophers to openly discuss his own fears and the variety of philosophical therapies he used to overcome them. Montaigne’s Essays gives the reader an open mind approach to life.
I agree with you that Montaigne is very direct about life, and he provides many examples/stories to show the differences of life for each individual who are coming from a different background. This allows us to see life from a different perspective. He also mentions that imagination makes us fear, and we cannot overcome fear by resistance. In contrast, we need to be admitting it and speaking about it in advance, therefore, it wouldn’t be as scary or harmful to us when we are experiencing the expected fears.
I agree with you. Montaigne’s has revealed the fear in human nature. When we see how weak people behave when facing fear, the fear of others is a strange emotion. When fear comes, people are controlled by fear , Worrying about all kinds of impossible things, this is meaningless. Fear is caused by one’s own inner strength is not strong enough, people with strong mental strength will face fear.