Montaigne's Essays resemble a patchwork of personal reflections, but they engage with questions that animate the human mind, and tend to a single goal: to live better in the present and to prepare for death. For this reason, Montaigne's thought and writings have been a subject of enduring interest across disciplines. This Handbook brings together essays by prominent scholars that examine Montaigne's literary, philosophical, and political contributions, and assess his legacy and relevance today in a global perspective. It presents Montaigne's Essays not only in their historical context but also as a starting point for discussing issues that concern us today.

A definitive biography of the great French essayist and thinker One of the most important writers and thinkers of the Renaissance, Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) helped invent a literary genre that seemed more modern than anything that had come before. But did he do it, as he suggests in his Essays, by retreating to his chateau and stoically detaching himself from his violent times? Philippe Desan overturns this long standing myth by showing that Montaigne was constantly connected to and concerned with realizing his political ambitions—and that the literary and philosophical character of the Essays largely depends on them. Desan shows how Montaigne conceived of each edition of the Essays as an indispensable prerequisite to the next stage of his public career. It was only after his political failure that Montaigne took refuge in literature, and even then it was his political experience that enabled him to find the right tone for his genre. The most comprehensive and authoritative biography of Montaigne yet written, this sweeping narrative offers a fascinating new picture of his life and work.

Winner of the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography How to get along with people, how to deal with violence, how to adjust to losing someone you love—such questions arise in most people’s lives. They are all versions of a bigger question: how do you live? How do you do the good or honorable thing, while flourishing and feeling happy? This question obsessed Renaissance writers, none more than Michel Eyquem de Monatigne, perhaps the first truly modern individual. A nobleman, public official and wine-grower, he wrote free-roaming explorations of his thought and experience, unlike anything written before. He called them “essays,” meaning “attempts” or “tries.” Into them, he put whatever was in his head: his tastes in wine and food, his childhood memories, the way his dog’s ears twitched when it was dreaming, as well as the appalling events of the religious civil wars raging around him. The Essays was an instant bestseller and, over four hundred years later, Montaigne’s honesty and charm still draw people to him. Readers come in search of companionship, wisdom and entertainment—and in search of themselves. This book, a spirited and singular biography, relates the story of his life by way of the questions he posed and the answers he explored. It traces his bizarre upbringing, youthful career and sexual adventures, his travels, and his friendships with the scholar and poet Étienne de La Boétie and with his adopted “daughter,” Marie de Gournay. And we also meet his readers—who for centuries have found in Montaigne an inexhaustible source of answers to the haunting question, “how to live?”

This volume traces the history of Western philosophy of education from the Medieval through the Renaissance period (500-1550). This vast expanse of time includes the rise of Christian monasticism (one of the most enduring and revolutionary models of education in the history of the West), the birth of Islam (with its advances in mathematical, scientific, and philosophical reasoning), the rise of the university (as an emerging force distinct from ecclesiastical and state control), and the dawn of the Enlightenment. It includes chapters on the educational thought of Benedict, Abelard, Heloise, Aquinas, Maimonides, the prophet Mohammaed, Hrosvitha of Ganderscheim, Hildegard of Bingen, among others. It also considers the educational impact of Reformation thinkers like Erasmus and Luther, and Renaissance thinkers such as Montaigne. About A History of Western Philosophy of Education: An essential resource for researchers, scholars, and students of education, this five-volume set that traces the development of philosophy of education through Western culture and history. Focusing on philosophers who have theorized education and its implementation, the series constitutes a fresh, dynamic, and developing view of educational philosophy. It expands our educational possibilities by reinvigorating philosophy's vibrant critical tradition, connecting old and new perspectives, and identifying the continuity of critique and reconstruction. It also includes a timeline showing major historical events, including educational initiatives and the publication of noteworthy philosophical works.

In Montaigne: Life without Law, originally published in French in 2014 and now translated for the first time into English by Paul Seaton, Pierre Manent provides a careful reading of Montaigne’s three-volume work Essays. Although Montaigne’s writings resist easy analysis, Manent finds in them a subtle unity, and demonstrates the philosophical depth of Montaigne’s reflections and the distinctive, even radical, character of his central ideas. To show Montaigne’s unique contribution to modern philosophy, Manent compares his work to other modern thinkers, including Machiavelli, Hobbes, Pascal, and Rousseau. What does human life look like without the imposing presence of the state? asks Manent. In raising this question about Montaigne’s Essays, Manent poses a question of great relevance to our contemporary situation. He argues that Montaigne’s philosophical reflections focused on what he famously called la condition humaine, the human condition. Manent tracks Montaigne’s development of this fundamental concept, focusing especially on his reworking of pagan and Christian understandings of virtue and pleasure, disputation and death. Bringing new form and content together, a new form of thinking and living is presented by Montaigne’s Essays, a new model of a thoughtful life from one of the unsung founders of modernity. Throughout, Manent suggests alternatives and criticisms, some by way of contrasts with other thinkers, some in his own name. This is philosophical engagement at a very high level. In showing the unity of Montaigne’s work, Manent’s study will appeal especially to students and scholars of political theory, the history of modern philosophy, modern literature, and the origins of modernity.

The first volume of a major two-volume study centers on the fortunes of Michel de Montaigne's Essais in both the early-modern (1580-1725) and the modern period (1900-2000). This volume examines how the Essais made Montaigne a patron-author or instant classic in the eyes of his peers.

Word Study in Montaigne's Essais Modern readers in need of a precise understanding both of the changes in the French language over the last 400 years since the Essais was written and of the idiosyncracies of Montaigne's usage will appreciate these articles exploring the nuances and fluctuations in the meaning of many of Montaigne's words. These critical studies of Montaigne's vocabulary and its shifting contexts will aid in understanding how Montaigne's choice of words reflects his ability to take elements from his background of wide-ranging, life-long classical reading and blend them with his own original, unflagging curiosity and speculation about matters relating to contemporary life.