I believe Montaigne’s purpose in writing was to trigger people to have self-reflections. Self-reflections cause change in people, which then leads to a change in society. Montaigne wasn’t happy with the French Renaissance era, so he wanted to bring change. His Essay was mostly about the sixteenth-century French renaissance. Based on his writing, you can tell that he wasn’t happy with what was going on in society. His writing probably made a lot of people upset because he was telling the truth in his eyes. In the end, Montaigne’s stood up to what he believed.
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John you make a great point here in you blog post. It was evident that Montaigne was trying to shift the concept of society with his writings. He wanted people to think for themselves and become free speakers. Montaigne helped shape the renaissance movement in France with his essays and standing up for what he believed.
That is a good point. Especially how he separated the chapters into what seems to be very different topics, however when you analyze closely they all have the same message. By doing that it induces the readers to analyze the message themselves. This pushes the readers to think and allow the readers to truly understand what he is trying to say.
Montaigne is a different kind of writer in the sense that he didn’t make any claims based on biblical references or ancient philosophies. He was writing his cause of existence through observations and social experiments. Montaigne did not make any claims as to “how to live.” but instead gave us details of accounts for us to make reflections of our own cause for existence.
Even though Montaigne’s essay was written many centuries ago, it seems that he was looking for freedom of the mind and peacefulness of the soul. Montaigne was in front of the classical philosophical or moral work; he expresses how people should behave.