Michel de Montaigne

ISBN-13: 9780521821681 / Angielski / Twarda / 2003 / 312 str.

Ann Hartle

Opis

Michel de Montaigne has always been acknowledged as a great literary figure but never thought of as a philosophical original. This book is the first to treat him as a serious thinker in his own right, taking as its point of departure Montaigne's description of himself as "an unpremeditated and accidental philosopher." This major reassessment of a much admired but also greatly underestimated thinker is for historians of philosophy and scholars in comparative literature, French studies and the history of ideas.

Recenzje

'I have hitherto been like most other philosophers in supposing that while Montaigne has had a considerable cultural influence that has manifested itself in the work of major philosophers, he is not thought of as a major philosopher himself. I think Ann Hartle has shown … that he is indeed an original philosophical thinker, and that the heterogeneity of his writings and his deliberate unpretentiousness have concealed this from us. She demonstrates this by skillful and erudite use of the texts of the essays and by an assiduous study of the main philosophical themes that appear in them.' Terence Penelhum, University of Calgary

Spis treści

Acknowledgements; Note on the texts; Introduction; Part I. A New Figure: 1. 'That is where he got it!': Montaigne's caprices and the humours of ancient philosophy; 2. Bending and stretching the categories of traditional metaphysics; 3. The essay as philosophical form; Part II. Accidental Philosophy: 4. The circular dialectic of self-knowledge; 5. 'What it means to believe'; 6. The latent metaphysics of accidental philosophy; Part III. The Character of the Accidental Philosopher: 7. Montaigne's character: the great-souled man without pride; 8. What he learned in the nursery: accidental moral philosophy and Montaigne's reformation; 9. Christianity and the limits of politics; Notes; Works cited; Index.