Michel de Montaigne

Early Life

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne was born on February 28, 1533, at the Château de Montaigne in the Périgord region of southwestern France. His family had risen from the merchant class to the minor nobility; his father, Pierre Eyquem, was a man of progressive educational ideas who had his infant son raised by German-speaking tutors so that Latin would be his first language. Until the age of six, Montaigne heard no French, absorbing classical Latin as a mother tongue — an experiment that gave him a lifelong intimacy with ancient literature.

He studied law, probably at the University of Toulouse, and served as a magistrate in the Parlement of Bordeaux from 1557 to 1570. There he formed the most important friendship of his life, with Étienne de La Boétie, a fellow magistrate, humanist, and author of the Discourse on Voluntary Servitude. La Boétie's death in 1563, at the age of 32, was the central emotional event of Montaigne's life; the Essays themselves can be read in part as an attempt to fill the void left by this loss.

Retirement and the Essays

In 1571, on his 38th birthday, Montaigne retired from public life to the tower library of his château, where he inscribed on the beams skeptical maxims from Sextus Empiricus, Ecclesiastes, and other sources. He began writing what he called essais — 'trials' or 'attempts' — short prose explorations of topics ranging from cannibals to coaches, from friendship to fear, from the education of children to the experience of kidney stones.

The first two books of the Essais were published in 1580. Over the following twelve years, Montaigne continuously revised, expanded, and added to them, publishing a second edition in 1582 and a third, substantially enlarged edition (with the new Book III) in 1588. At his death, he left a personal copy — the 'Bordeaux Copy' — covered in handwritten additions and corrections, which forms the basis of modern editions.

Philosophical Development

Scholars traditionally identify three phases in Montaigne's philosophical development, reflected in the changing character of the Essais. The early essays (Book I) are strongly influenced by Stoicism, particularly Seneca, and focus on themes of constancy, death, and moral resolution. The middle period, centered on the monumental 'Apology for Raymond Sebond' (the longest essay, occupying most of Book II), represents a deep engagement with Pyrrhonian skepticism: Montaigne deploys the full arsenal of ancient skeptical arguments to demolish human pretensions to certain knowledge, concluding with the question 'Que sais-je?' ('What do I know?').

The late essays (Book III) move beyond both Stoicism and skepticism toward a mature, affirmative philosophy of embodied experience. Montaigne embraces the flux and variety of human life, finding wisdom not in abstract principles but in honest self-observation and acceptance of one's own nature. The famous essay 'Of Experience' (III.13) is the culmination of this trajectory.

Public Life

Despite his retirement, Montaigne remained politically active. He traveled extensively through Germany, Switzerland, and Italy in 1580–1581 (recorded in his posthumously published Travel Journal), and served two terms as Mayor of Bordeaux (1581–1585), navigating the treacherous politics of the French Wars of Religion with characteristic moderation. A Catholic loyalist, he maintained friendships with Huguenot leaders and counseled tolerance — a dangerous position in an age of massacres.

Death and Legacy

Montaigne died on September 13, 1592, at his château, at the age of 59, from quinsy (a complication of tonsilitis) exacerbated by the kidney stones that had plagued him for years. His Essais were posthumously edited by his literary executor Marie de Gournay, who became one of the first women to achieve recognition as a writer and editor.

Montaigne's influence is immeasurable. He virtually created the modern concept of the self as an object worthy of sustained philosophical attention. His skepticism, his tolerance, his insistence on the variability and inconsistency of human nature, and his luminous prose style have made him a foundational figure for thinkers from Pascal and Descartes (who both responded directly to his skepticism) through Nietzsche, Emerson, and the entire tradition of personal essay writing.