In Michel de Montaigne’s collection of essays, perception, or our point of view of things, rule our existence. In the first piece “Of the Power of the Imagination”, Montaigne’s main point is that “strong imagination creates the event”(345). In his experience, if people’s belief or imagination in an action or event was strong enough, said thought coursing through one’s imagination would become true. Basically, a placebo would take effect. The placebo effect is something that i learned about very young and always interested me. The way Montaigne beautifully describes the power of imagination or a placebo, in a less scientific and medicinal way, really engaged me.

In another essay, “Of Cannibals”, perception takes place through cultural relativism. He argues that the Europeans incorrectly refer to the newly discovered Brazilian people as barbaric in nature. From the standpoint of the Europeans, he understands why they would say that, as anything different from their norm can be considered barbaric and prehistoric. However, he argues against this when he recalls a visit from 3 Brazilians and how they considered certain European traditions odd. He also argues that European are actually more barbaric because they are farther away from humankind’s “natural” state. If anything is wild it is that that is furthest away from nature and that would be the Europeans. He understands that it all depends on who’s viewpoint you are looking from, in    another word, perception.