Great Works of Literature I, Spring 2020 – Online – Two

Michel de Montaigne, a 16th-century philosopher who proposed no theories, put no trust in reason and showed no desire to convince readers of anything. In his vast book Essays, he contradicted himself, and followed his thoughts wherever his thoughts wherever they led. His Essays were bound to coincide with the wisdom of the ancients from time to time. Many people have seen him not just as a philosopher but as the world’s truly modern thinker, because of his intense awareness that he was complex and self-divided, always double in himself. In my opinion, he was the first and greatest philosopher of life as it is actually lived.

de Pizan responded to male authors’ depiction of woman in her work by wondering why no one up until this point thought to question the stories being told about woman written solely by men.  While reading about woman its important to understand the point of view of the author and whether or not he is tuned in with the actual stories of woman and not just a biased male portrayal. I think this was a revolutionary idea of the time to question what it means to be a woman and how men have played a big role in controlling the narrative. I was captured by how the author wrote about common themes woman are still working to fight against today. In modern times its more important than ever for woman to gain control of the narrative around them, especially in the media, as it was similarly questioned in The Book of the City Ladies. Pizans work is groundbreaking because helped to give woman a voice in telling their own story.

Memory plays an important role in Augustine’s work because each of the books within Confessions is a reflection back on his own life events. Augustine relies heavily on his own memory in order to paint the image to the reader how his story is not too different from their own. Using his memories Augustine is able to create a recognizable theme of a long personal struggle before coming to the reckoning and ultimate acceptance of God. When you are able to reflect back on your childhood as an adult it gives you a better understanding of why things occurred the way they did now that you can view it through the lens of an adult. This type of self development can bring closure to many painful events from your past and reform those painful memories. How we interpret our memories can help us reconcile with our internal conflicts and lead us down the path towards Gods grace.

Montaigne’s essays are a kind of instructive for life, from those places to which, once known, he turns in the hope of finding clarity. Throughout the pages of the Essays Michel de Montaigne provides us with a continuing lesson in wisdom. There is no subject that is foreign to him: some subjects that have been mentioned are friendship, fear, the education of children, vanity or experience. I feel that for Montaigne, who lived through one of the most violent times in human history, lying is one of the worst possible vices because it detracts from the value of humans. According to Montaigne, fear is a corrosive emotion that we must try to shake off. It is a strange passion and the most conducive to upset judgment and generate hallucinations.
The risk of fear is that it paralyzes, and that is the worst thing we can do in tragic moments.

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592,) was the son of a wealthy family. He was one of the first French noblemen who divided his life between political activities and Philosophy retreats connecting philosophy to lived experience. I addition, Montaigne was a humanist and a philosopher who was considered the father of Modern Skepticism, doubting the truth of something. He popularized the essay, a short writing, where the author discusses his personal thoughts on a specific subject. The essay was considered a new literary genre that became very popular to this day. Montaigne was in front of the classical philosophical or moral work; he expresses how a man should behave based on his lifestyle and experiences, as opposed to the liberal ideas of the intellectuals at the time.

Michel Montaigne was a philosopher and one of the most influential writers of the Franch Renaissance. Montaigne argues in his work critical self-reflection and provides valuable comments about Middle Age French culture, politics, and life. The Essays provides a collection of analyzes, observations, events about the curious mind. ” They present a curious mind investigating history, the complex and changing sociopolitical world, and the mind’s own slightly mysterious working” (343 Essays).

Montaigne wanted to have a better understanding of how the mind is working in all of the circumstances of life, from greatest events to the most everyday routine. ” When Montaigne looks inward, he does not aggrandize or justify himself but tries to understand how the mind works” (343 Essays). His concerns what generally might be thought of as the  “good” or “ethical”.  Throughout my experience, the mind is relating to previous events from the past and is recognizing that as good or bad thought in our adult life. As a child, we have been taught what is good what is bad, we did not bear with a setup mind for a positive or negative prospectives. We learned from parents, older siblings, the close family than from school, teachers, books which shaped our minds. I agree with Montaigne if you want to achieve a state close to perfection you must reach beyond yourself.  You need to push yourself outside your limits! I know that from my personal experience. If you want something you need to step out of your comfort zone otherwise you never move from the place where you stand and you won’t achieve your dream or goal.

Montaigne was an artist of life with astute observations of daily life. He examined “how to live” and revisited while writing the essays during the course of twenty years until his death. He witnessed or experienced more deaths in his family than did any well-known writers alike. He gave his readers a detailed account of his personal observations or third-party accounts of what happened elsewhere. In contrast to the ancient philosophers, in Of cannibals, Montaigne argues for an ethical standpoint that one custom is not superior or inferior to another and that consuming dead bodies seems less barbaric than torturing people while they are still alive. On the contrary, cremating corpses or burying and letting the worms consume the deceased are easily viewed as cruel.

An American poet, essayist, and philosopher Henry David Thoreau said:” read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all”.  In my high school times,  each year school provided a list of books that we must-read. The list included a classic work of literature, history, philosophy, and culture. Confession by St. Augustine is one of these great books that you must read.

St. Augustine of Hippo provides in Confession coherent rationale.  The fundamental reason for reading great tests is to be wiser. For Augustine reading for any reason other than the sapiential is very little importance or value. He argues there that wisdom should lead to personal transformation – a matter of life or death.

” The overall effect of the Confession is to turn the reader inward, away from the individual journey of Augustine and toward the collective journey of humanity towards the divine” (Augustine 46).

Augustine was reading a lot, to have a better understanding of this journey; he measures his spiritual growth throughout the lenses of reading.  The beauty of reading Confession is a documentary history that assembles the various fact of life. Augustine tells the story of his heart and soul.

In Montaigne’s essay  “Of the Power of Imagination,” he discusses the power of the brain and the imagination to create reality. To some extent, he is capturing a concept that has been proven with science as we see with placebo affects. Additionally, our perception of other people can indeed influence our own feelings and behavior as he says “The sight of other people’s anguish causes very real anguish to me, and my feelings have often usurped the feelings of others. A continual cougher irritates my lungs and throat.” He’s articulating a real phenomenon created by  the “narrow seam between the body and the soul.” In this case, the soul (psychological state) is our mental framework that can truly influence how we feel, as in a happier person can be healthier and live longer than a sadder person, considering stress and anguish can legitimately be a mortality factor the same way poor diet and lack of sleep can be even though they are entirely non-physical. 

“These nations, then, seem to me barbarous in this sense, that they have been fashioned very little by the human mind, and are still very close to their original naturalness. The laws of nature still rule them, very little corrupted by ours; and they are in such a state of purity” (356)…

Europe took over many countries slaughtering kings and their pupils in very barbaric methods. The irony of it all is that they viewed the people they killed as the barbaric ones. They brought death to them all for satisfaction of their vain  and glamorous desires.

In the old world, people were not happy they were very much empty. We see how the kings only had expensive habits and things to show off to a poor society. It is all twisted and backwards. People were starving but held their king up high, and got nothing in return.

What good did this vanity bring? It only brought death. Death to the gladiators who had to put a show for their majesty. Death to other nations to please the love for gold and finer things. And death to a starving society, who had no food because of the love of greed of their king.